


Borrowed Embrace

by KRMalana



Series: Norsekink meme Fills [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Norse Mythology, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Community: norsekink, Fluff and Angst, Loki needs friends, M/M, Portland Oregon, Slash, alternate universe-fuckery, timefuckery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-13
Updated: 2015-04-20
Packaged: 2017-12-29 06:35:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1002124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KRMalana/pseuds/KRMalana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sigyn, a college boy who liked the Thor movies and took Norse Mythology to see the original material for himself, finds himself suddenly sucked into an alternatre universe where all of it is real.  So he decides the best thing to do is to become friends with Loki.  Because Loki damn well needs them.  </p><p>He just never expected everything else to happen.</p><p>(Fill for norsekink prompt)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Touchdown in Asgard

**Author's Note:**

> POTENTIAL TRIGGER FOR 1 CHAPTER: mentions of 9/11
> 
> Full prompt: http://norsekink.livejournal.com/12132.html?thread=29919844#t29919844
> 
> "Someone, could be an Asgardian or an Avenger or an OC, winds up in another universe, but also back in time a few years, long before Thor's coronation date in the first film. They know all about Loki. They know that he lacked friends and was jealous, and that he possibly lost it before he even found out he was adopted.
> 
> So, this person, decides that, rather than send themselves home or wait for fate or whatever to do that for them, they are going to try their best to change things for Loki. Maybe they turn up as a stranger (or maybe they awaken in their counterpart's body) and begin trying to fix things. If Loki's birthday is forgotten by his family, Character makes sure he gets a birthday cake and gift. If Loki is insulted by someone, Character makes sure to defend him without making it look like pity. Character attempts to befriend Loki without making him suspicious, and then gently guide him from seeking his family's attention. Character assures Loki that Odin will be able to see for himself that Thor is not ready for a throne. Character and Loki maybe fall in love, or encourages him to pursue a romance.
> 
> Subsequently, Loki matures into a far better balanced person. He's still insecure, he's still desperate for love, but his eyes have been opened into seeing that his family and Asgard are just one part of the nine realms, rather than Asgard being this great dominating realm with all the rights over the others. There is so much more out there for him.
> 
> Now then, Loki can come very close to losing it anyway if he discovers that Character might only have made friends with him to stop bad stuff happening. But maybe, meeting or witnessing his alternate counterpart's actions (this Loki might even be redeemed by now, but he's severely damaged and bitter). Also, bonus for Loki's family becoming jealous of the relationship between him and Character, and the knowledge that they played very little part in his greatness.
> 
> Character can actually be alternate Loki in disguise, although I'd rather not have any Loki/Loki if that's the case. Character could even become villainous themselves if they eventually don't want to let go of their influence over Loki."

Sigyn blew at the loose strand of hair in a vain attempt to get the curl out of his face.  He kept his eyes on the chalkboard, glancing at the leather bound journal in his hand.  The soft taps of the chalk on the board echoed in the empty classroom.  Professor Katya allowed him to linger in the room between classes to discuss ideas or visit.  He had been wanting to be able to read and write in runes ever since he discovered that the _Lord of the Rings_ movies came from books, which in turn had touches of real life mythology.  (Plus, he’d be ready to put it to use come next fall term when he took her Tolkien class)  She welcomed students who wanted to explore the subjects more than what was presented in class… if they didn’t get on her nerves.

A smile tugged at one corner of his mouth.  He remembered the announcement she had made on the first day.  This was a class for North European Mythology, which meant they were primarily covering Norse, Welsh, and Irish materials.  They had first started out with Neil Gaiman’s _American Gods_ as a treat to see how a modern writer presented them, to see which gods they could pick out now, and to see how much more aware they were at the end of the class where they would quickly reread it.  But, under no circumstances, were they to mention the recent movies or Marvel comics while discussing Thor.  Not unless they wanted her to leap over the podium and throttle them.

Sigyn had to laugh at himself.  That was why he had taken the class in the first place.  He had only touches of Norse mythology before, half remembered stories told to him as a child by his Norwegian grandmamma.  (His mama had sworn up and down that he would be a girl when she was pregnant, and made dad promise to let her be named Sigyn after her favorite goddess.  The name had stuck despite him being a boy.)  Then he had seen the Thor movie and been utterly entranced.  (He couldn’t help it.  It was so damn pretty.)  Thor had been his favorite character and that had led him into the comics.  So why not take a Norse mythology class to see where everything had come from?  He had expected to continue to liking Thor…

…And instead found himself liking Loki of all people.  The Thor of the _eddas_ was rather moronic and a bit boring.  Especially when his own mythology presented him as simply thrashing giants or failing to recognize his own father in a flyting match.  A flyting match over not wanting to get his balls wet crossing a river of all things.  (And when you considered that Thor daily waded across a river to get to the Aesir ting while the rest rode over the Bifrost…)

Loki was mischievous.  Loki was clever.  He was the one who solved everything.  Sure there were times when he was the one who started everything and caused the trouble.  But then there were other stories were Loki didn’t even seem to be there until the Aesir turned around and demanded that he fix things.  He was the one who made the stories fun.  He was the one who made the students chuckle when reading parts out loud in class.  The _Lokasenna_ had been a riot…

Sigyn actually felt kinda bad that he hadn’t been able to recognize Low-Key Lyesmith until shortly before Shadow did in American Gods.  He hadn’t known Loki had other names before taking the class.  But it had made him return to the Thor movie and concentrate on Loki.  That was where everything changed.  He’d actually had to go back to see _Avengers_ several times in theaters since he kept getting distracted by Loki.  He really hoped he didn’t get the chance to meet Tom Hiddleston.  Because he would serious start geeking out if he did. 

His train of thought broke as he looked down at the journal, filled with notes and the elder futhark runes, and then back up at the chalkboard.  Crap.  His wandering thoughts had transferred to his hand and it had continued to write the things in his mind.  Random phrases here and there, words written atop words.  Since he wasn’t concentrating his left hand had wandered and started writing backwards, right to left, letters in reverse order.  The chalk was pressed into the last stroke of laguz, the L, of Loki’s name, written above the runes for Asgard. 

“Damnit,” he glanced around for the eraser.  He was learning how to work sentences together and all the things that went into them to make them correct.  If Katya saw this she’d laugh and wonder just what he was trying to do.  Ah, there it was, sitting innocently until the podium.  Sigyn turned, chalk lifting from the board, to pick it up.  Yet as he turned, as the chalk left, the sound of its scrapping began anew.  A smell of burning filled the air and white light shimmered at the edge of his sense.  He managed to turn for the briefest of moments and saw that the runes shimmered on the board.  They bled together, growing, revealing an image beyond the chalkboard he couldn’t believe.  Before Sigyn blinked he saw he saw a myriad of colors dancing as stars in dark space before his stomach leapt in his throat and he was sucked forward. 

Sigyn squeezed his eyes tight against the moving lights.  He curled in on himself protectively, one arm over his head and the other curled to his chest.  He had the weirdest sensation of flying… if a body could fly by itself at great speeds.  Pops rang in his ears as he suddenly slammed to a near stop.  And began to drop in free fall.  He barely had time to open his eyes and see a great city spread out underneath him, leading towards a towering golden mountain.  Then the trees started rushing forward and he was more concerned protecting his eyes than seeing where he was.  He hardly felt the impact with the ground since the air being knocked out of him was overwhelming.

He lay there, gasping for air, until his vision cleared and his body decided to function again.  “Let’s not do that again…”  Sigyn groaned as he pushed himself upright.  He was in some sort of garden or small decoration of plants.  The back of a few houses framed one side and a tall wall framed the other.  Narrow alleyways led from the garden to some sort of street teeming with activity, if the noise level meant anything.  But the buildings were unlike anything he was used too.  “This is weird, even for Portland.”

He forced himself to stand and shuffled towards the alley until his legs decided to start working.  He peeked out to the street, unsure what he would find, and was suddenly glad he kept himself hidden.  The streets were filled with people going about their lives in a loud and busy manner.  Their clothes were something he had only seen in pictures or reenactors.  No jeans, no sneakers, no zippers... almost like it was homespun.  The men looked tough and the women not to be messed with casually.  Where were the cars and the paved streets?  Even the houses were strange in that they were made of either wood or stone...  He definitely wasn't in Portland anymore. 

He had no idea where he was but he was damn well not going to cause a scene while figuring it out.  Moving back into the shadows he took stock of himself.  Sneakers, blue jeans,  a grinning Jack Skellington shirt celebrating 20 years of terror.  As much as he liked it he had the feeling these people wouldn’t appreciate someone walking around with a skull on his shirt.  His leather journal was still held tightly in his right hand, and the long piece of chalk was still held in his left.  That was everything except what might be in his pockets…

His cellphone!  “Damn why didn’t I think that first!?”  Tucking the chalk into the journal he fished the smart phone from his pocket.  His sister’s voice rang in his head as he did “Because getting kidnapped by happy space portals is totally normal.”  He flipped the cover open.  Mostly full battery.  A picture of his dog as the lock screen, a shot of the family from their trip to Disney World as the home screen.  But as he looked at the top an x blared the fact that there was no wireless or cell connection here.  He frantically tapped to bring up the GPS function.  Instead of the happy dot on a labeled map the marker blinked and blurred, the screen flickering as if being overwhelmed. 

“Great, that idea’s dead.”  He turned it off to conserve battery.  Never knew when he’d be able to try again and he wanted to be able to when he got the chance.  What next, Sigyn thought.  That led him back to his clothes.  He’d have to…borrow something for now.  Whispering an apology he ducked back into the alley.  He had seen a line of clothes out to dry from before and might be the only place he could get them without getting caught. 

Sigyn pulled the clothes off the line before darting back to the trees for some privacy.  He changed into the ‘borrowed’ clothes of unfamiliar material, carefully folding up his own.  He found a place to hide them behind a loose stone in the wall low to the ground and hoped no one would be poking around.  The clothes were…strange.  A tunic that fell hallway done to his knees, dyed a blueish-green color.  The pants were a similar make in a light brown, baggy but short in that they stopped after his shins.  A drawstring at one hip held them up.  He had taken a long length of indigo cloth he thought was a belt but as he tied it at his waist he wasn’t sure if it was a cloth belt or a scarf.  Sigyn took his unruly curls out of their bun and pulled them back into a ponytail. 

His sneakers would have to be left behind with the clothes.  He hadn’t seen any footwear laying nearby but he didn’t mind going barefoot. The only things he kept with him was the leather journal and his cellphone (in case this was some crazy cosplay play or a renaissance fair).  He tucked the chalk in too; since it had probably gotten him into this mess it might damn well get him out of it.  “Okay, keep calm, blend in, but keep aware.  And remember how to get back here…”

Sigyn walked out of the alley and into the street, melding into traffic like he belonged.  Except, as he had seen earlier, he didn’t.  The people here were very different.  Most of the women had very long hair held back in braids or tails, and all in dresses or skirts.  Shopping with baskets on their arms, or selling at booths, keeping an eye on their children who raced about.  The men, while not outrageously so, were muscular to varying degrees.  He suddenly realized it was that they all worked with their hands.  Blacksmiths, carpenters, woodworkers, farmers, and all the more.  He must be close to some type of marketplace for so many craftsmen to be in one place.

As he slowly meandered down the street he couldn’t help getting the feeling that this was a bit familiar, like he had seen it somewhere before.  But where?  And why?  He hugged the leather journal to his chest as he thought.  He had obviously been taken, transported, somewhere else, no matter how silly and impossible it sounded.  (Or this was one hell of a dream- why had it started at university of all places?)  He had no idea how he could get home… or even if he could get home.  The dread of the thought would have settled on him if not for the flash of gold that caught his eye.  Glancing up between buildings Sigyn saw something that made him wonder if chalk dust was hallucinogenic.  “IT can’t be!”

Sigyn darted down a side street as he looked for a better view of the towering building.  A golden palace.  Ancient and futuristic all in one breath.  The palace that he always knew to look for yet the upside down crystal mountain always tricked him.  Asgard--!

His run took him out into the new street, the high halls of the palace of Asgard rising up in the distance, gleaming, and distracting.  Without a warning besides a flash of grey metal and red and gold he slammed into a solid form hard enough to bounce back into the wall behind him.  Sigyn clamped a land over his nose as he saw stars.  It hurt too much to even cuss.  Forcing his eyes open he watched the armored and golden haired man continue on his way.  He didn’t even pause.  One of his companions glanced over his shoulder, “watch where you’re going” hissed back.  He was very willing to apologize, but geez, at least some acknowledgment would be nice.  Sigyn’s hazel eyes fell to the first man’s waist and widened at the great hammer held there.  That’s why ozone crackled in the air.

Then Sigyn glared.  Sure, he had just fallen into what looked like Asgard.  And, of course, he had just run head long into the Thunderer himself, who seemed to ignore much of what was around him.  He didn’t like labeling people an ass… (especially when As seemed to be the short of Aesir) but ow damn did his nose hurt.

A chuckle sounded from Sigyn’s side and he suddenly realized he wasn’t alone.  “Now that is not a reaction I’ve seen my brother receive.”  Sigyn turned his head slowly.  Hand still over his throbbing nose and journal clutched to his chest.  And there…

And there stood Loki.  (Oh damn Hiddleston had nothing on this…)  Wow… how could those eyes be any greener?

Loki grinned for a moment and then motioned with his finger.  “And how has my dear brother treated your nose?”  Sigyn removed his hand, feeling it and looking cross-eyed down at it.  While it wasn’t broken, a welting cut rose where it had scrapped against armor.  “It’ll go down after a while.  It probably won’t scar.”  Loki laughed once again more to himself.  “Though it will take some time for Thor to realize the eyes burning into the back of his head.”  Then, with a wave of a hand and mischievous green eyes, he left.

The first bench he found Sigyn sat down in a daze.  So, somehow, he had been transported to Asgard.  And not just Asgard but its capital or palace city.  The people here were real.  More importantly, Thor and Loki, stepping out of the myths and comics and cinema screens.  There was so much more he should have, could have, considered, but he didn’t.  If anything Sigyn should be figuring out how to get home.  But he wasn’t.  He could not, he realized.  Hw wasn’t completely sure but it seemed like he had also been transported back in time a few years.  Thor and Loki seemed younger and closer to his own age.  This must be some time before the coronation…

One jolt of excitement ran through Sigyn as the idea suddenly bloomed.  The while reason anything had happened was that Loki felt alone and unequal compared to Thor.  He was jealous of him, and probably lacked friends of his own.  He’d never been sure (since, you know, it was two moves and not real life) but even though the revelation of his adoption was a tipping point, Loki had probably lost it before that.

What if he became Loki’s friend?

Unbidden, the images of the destruction of Jotunheim and the war in Manhattan came to mind.  His stomach twisted and iced.  It had been many years since it had happened (he was only ten at the time) but the images of 9/11 flashed.  The second plane hitting, the towers coming down, staring and crying at the TV.  Sure, he was a born and raised upstate New Yorker, and sure the city drove him nuts at times.  But that was New York’s City, and hell to pay if any one messed with it.  But maybe… if he became Loki’s friend and found others for him, that wouldn’t happen. 

Then there was Loki himself.  If he was alone, if he kept all these things locked  inside, he needed people.  He deserved people.  People who liked Loki for himself and didn’t expect certain things of him as a son and prince.  Who didn’t compare him to the seemingly golden sun that was Thor.  (Besides, in all the stories where someone got sucked to another world, they had a mission to do.  This was his.)

Sigyn was going to change things for Loki.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm going with the OP's option of using an original character. Sigyn is basically that, of distant Norwegian origin raised in our world where there is Norse Mythology, Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the Thor comics. This origin is done to also go with the OP's prompt in that the character knows all about Loki and what happened to him. 
> 
> I am going to try my hardest to not make Sigyn a gary stu like character. However, he is fun to explore in that how would I or an average person react to this happening to them?
> 
> Tidbit: Professor Katya and her Norse Mythology class is based off a class I took in real life. She was a blast.
> 
> Tidbit: That ten year old upstate New Yorker at 9/11 was me. I didn't lose anyone, but I think between the age/watching it happen live on TV I have an emotional trigger concerning that day. And while being an upstater (damnit the entire state is NOT NYC) I am still a bit protective of our famous city. Sigyn has a similar origin (born and raised there; currently attending Portland State University in Oregon) which also lend to the prompt's knowing what Loki did/wanting to prevent it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sigyn tries sneaking around Asgard to learn things.

The idea and conviction was fine, but Sigyn soon realized this was going to be harder than he thought.  First was how he was to get to Loki.  He couldn’t very well march to the palace, demand to see Loki, and loudly declare he would be Loki’s friend.  That would be stupid.  And highly suspicious.

Then was the fact of Sigyn himself.  He might look like an Asgardian (in the borrowed clothes) but he didn’t belong.  He didn’t have a place to stay.  He didn’t have anything to eat (silence rebellious tummy!).  And he basically had nothing to his name except empty pockets and stolen clothes.

This was going to take a while…

Sigyn managed to find a bed that night, asking a house for a bed in exchange for helping out in the morning.  The Norse had a great dedication to the hospitality extended to strangers and that seemed to resonate with Asgard.  But he wouldn’t push it and wouldn’t take advantage.  The wife fed him in the morning and Sigyn helped the husband clean out the gutters on the roof.  Then, he left.

Sigyn moved about the marketplace and soon discovered artisan quarter.  He presented himself as a youth newly arrived to Asgard (true) looking for work.  If he wasn’t skilled in it, he was willing to learn, or do any odds and ends they needed (mostly true).  It allowed him to get to know the city and put a bit of their currency in his pocket, but it also allowed him to surreptitiously gather information.

“When is the coronation?”  Sigyn asked an older man as he helped him unload his cart of wares.

“Oh, probably not for a few years yet.  The Allfather has some rule left in his yet.” The grizzly man answered, chucking his beard at the youth who seemed to have arrived in the city too early.  “Don’t worry, you’ll see Prince Thor crowned yet.”

“Thor?  Odin has already chosen?”  Sigyn wondered.  Man, if he had already announced his decision years ahead of time, Odin was an idiot.  Back home succession was usually decided with the firstborn automatically.  If not, the decision was made close to the time of the changing of rule.  But if Odin was training both sons to potentially take the throne this was another thing entirely.

The man stared at him, “No…but why would he choose otherwise?”  Sigyn wisely kept his mouth shut.

“Have I missed the birthday celebrations?”  Sigyn asked the next day as he helped haul the heavy tubs of water for the washer women.  

“Oh, aye.  The Thunderer’s birthday was at high summer past.”

“The celebration was huge.  I still remember all the food~”

“And Prince Loki’s birthday?”  When Sigyn asked the women grew silent.  They looked to each other in confusion.  

“Its… sometime in the winter, right?”

“I think so…”

“If I remember right its around low winter…”  Sigyn almost smacked a hand to his forehead.  If his own people didn’t know when Loki’s birthday was compared to Thor’s, he hoped his own family did better.  But with all the planning and information he gathered, the next time he came across Loki was an accident.

~*~*~

Today he had work as a messenger, carrying order, materials, or letters across the district.  There was a fountain in one part of this district that he used as a landmark.  Most of the time he had to ask for directions but he was slowly becoming familiar with this place.    When he approached it, looking for the road that led to the blacksmith’s, he stopped at the edge of the plaza.  The same group he had seen before waited by the fountain.  They could only be Sif and the Warriors Three:  Hogun, Fandral, and Volstagg.  He didn’t see Thor anywhere and that was probably why they gathered there.  But with them, sitting a bit further down the fountain, was Loki.

He and Sigyn looked on as Volstagg fed gathering magpies and other birds with crumbs from his pocket.  The lady and the three men talked quietly amongst themselves.  He couldn’t be sure from here, but from the look on Loki’s face, he wasn’t included.  With a brief wave of his hand he dispelled the small ball of colored light he had been balancing between fingers and set his chin in his hand.  He looked down towards the others.  His green eyes moved between them and the tiny flock of birds at Volstagg’s feet.  A grin began to grow as a mischievous glint entered those eyes.  

He curled his fingers, mouth moving silently.  As Sigyn watched bright stones and shiny baubles appeared in the hair of Sif and the hair and beards of the other men.  They didn’t seem to notice it when it appeared.  They did, however, notice thoroughly the swarm of birds that leapt at their heads in a frenzy to steal the shiny things.

“LOKI!!!!”

The guilty party only laughed.

Sigyn clapped a hand to his mouth to keep from cracking up.  Even stoic Hogun flailed helplessly in an attempt to swat the birds away.  And some of the birds were trying to burrow into Volstagg’s great bird.  He turned to leave.  He didn’t want to have to answer if someone saw him laughing.  Besides, he needed to get this order placed at the blacksmith’s sooner rather than later.  So he slipped back into the streets, unaware that ears had heard and green eyes had caught sight of the owner of that laugh, with ash brown curls and hazel eyes that curled at the edges with laughter.  

~*~*~

Sigyn stared down the long row of the palace’s stable.  The moment he had set foot in here he realized that this was not one of his better ideas.  He had thought to try today to see how close he could get to the palace and, in theory, Loki.  When he heard that they needed help in the stables he had offered his assistance.  After all, the people who had become is surrogate family back home had a small horse farm.  When he wasn’t busy with university he was always at their house, hanging out or helping with things.  He had learned how to take care of a barn and the horses with feeding and grooming.  They had even taught him how to be a better rider (and not just sit on a trail horse which had been his only experience before).  They had five horses most of the time with others that would rotate back from shows or from training.

He couldn’t even count how many were in here.  

The first thing Sigyn did was to track down boots.  Because there was no way in hell he was going in a horse’s stall in his bare feet.  He found a pile of barn boots in a corner of the stable, probably where other workers threw theirs for repair or once they were done.  He found a sound pair without holes despite being big for him.  Many of the horses had been taken out of the stalls, both to stretch their legs and to keep the stable-hands safe while cleaning.  Ah well.  At least he knew there were some ways to get close to the palace.  Sigyn grabbed a manure fork and a wheelbarrow.  He’d work down the stalls with that first, then double back to get rid of the pee-soaked bedding.  

He didn’t know how long he had worked when he suddenly realized that the barn had gone rather quiet besides the horses.  Before there had been several other workers in various parts, doing their jobs and working with him.  Now every one of them was gone.  And had been for a while.  Sigyn sighed softly.  Great.  Let the newbie do all the work.  But he was rather used to it.  Christine, the younger of his surrogate sisters, had run from her barn chores all the time.  Sigyn set the fork down and ran a forearm over his brow.  Water sounded good right now.  Maybe he could get some and then change out the water buckets for the horses.  Now where would it be?

He didn’t get very far.  Sigyn had rounded a corner in his search.  And around that corner was one of the biggest stalls he had ever seen.  Without any kind of a door and gate.  He thought at first it might have been a storage area until he saw the mighty horse within.  A dark horse, a warhorse.  A horse with eight legs.

Eyes wide, Sigyn slowly approached the arm level wall of the stall.  The stallion could only be Sleipnir.  His stall was the grandest of them all with cedar planks and sweet smelling bedding.  He had a huge water bucket as well as a grain bucket and a manger of hay that smelled good to even the human.  The stallion cast a glance over his shoulder, silver eyes unblinking, before returning to the grain.  “Wow…”  It was the only thing he could say.  He was a beautiful horse.  Not to mention big.  Very big.  Like his shoulders were taller than Sigyn’s eyelevel tall.  He’d be a bitch to groom.  And Sigyn totally wanted to groom him.  It was like a mix between the two geldings his surrogate parents had:  Tennessee the palomino with the beautiful coat (and who damn well knew he was pretty) and Buster the horse who had been of a similar size to Sleipnir (and who was a total dork).  Sigyn had liked the two, always grooming or riding with them when he got the chance.  

“Hi.  I’m Sigyn.  Is it ok if I come in?”  He asked as he entered the stall.  There were shelves in one part of the stall, holding specially made grooming tools.  A fair number of people thought horses were just dumb beasts but many who had them knew of their intelligence.  His surro-parents always talked to them and he had picked up on it.  “You’re a very handsome stallion. Are you really Odin’s warhorse?”  He presented his hand as he spoke so Sleipnir would know his scent.  That got the stallion’s attention.  He stood straighter, prouder, as if anyone else could be the stead of the great Allfather.  He chuckled as the velvety lips moved over his fingers to see if a treat was there.  “I don’t have anything… but I’m sure I could find something later.  May I groom you?”

Which was how Sigyn found himself on a stool out in the walkway to get up high enough to groom the stallion’s back and carrying on a conversation.  Despite his potential (he was a whole stallion AND a warhorse) Sleipnir seemed very aware of his own power and was quite gentle.  Or was completely taking advantage of the attention.  Every now and then he’d make a happy sound when the human hit a spot that was itchy and Sigyn was sure to add extra pressure to the spot with the brush.  Sigyn had already done the mane (he was not doing the tail; even back home that was _gross_) so all that was left was his hooves.

“So… please don’t kick me?  It looks painful enough with just one leg.  I don’t need two…”  He stood next to the horse, lightly leaning into him, and faced the tail.  As he moved down the leg he made sure to touch the horse so Sleipnir would know what he was doing.  There was one foot that was making him worry.  The entire time he had not seen the stallion place any weight on it (then again he did have four extra legs) and he might need to bring it to someone’s attention.  Once Sleipnir had adjusted his weight he cleaned out the bottom of the hoof with the hoof pick.  “Man!  Where the hell were you?  It’s like you were gallivanting through a muddy field or something.”  It was like the hooves he had cleaned when the horses had been out in the field too long or Christine forgot to pick them out.

He worked hoof to hoof, folding the inner one with a hand and cleaning with the other, placing the outer ones between his legs so it was easier.  Sleipnir neighed softly and shifted his weight down.  “Hey, I’m not a hoof rest here.  You’re squishing me.”  He reached up and poked Sleipnir in the side until he let up.  The stallion released his breath in such a way it sounded like a grumbling sigh.  Finally the last hoof was the one he refused to put any weight on.  “No wonder…”  Sigyn whispered to himself.  There was a large pebble lodged in the frog and even with his fingers it took him a while to work it out.  A tiny jolt racked up the leg once it was finally removed, but the relief in the stallion was immediate.  Surely one of the stable-hands or the horse caretakers would have noticed something like this before—

Sigyn realized it.  “You don’t let anyone touch your feet do you??”  If a horse could look sheepish, this was it.  “You could have told me, or did you want some nice new Sigyn-shoes today?”  He grumbled about sneaky and tricky horses as he put things away.  He straightened up only to be bumped forward by a large head to his back.  Sigyn pouted as he faced the horse to tease him but couldn’t keep it up.  “Alright.  I guess I’ve been lying too,” he said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the sugar bits as well as the big apple he had brought for his own snack.  Sleipnir’s ears immediately pricked forward in interest.  “I won’t tell if you won’t,” Sigyn laughed as the eager lips flapped at his palm to steal the goodies.  

He never noticed the form who had been watching them the whole time up in the rafters.

~*~*~

It wasn't until a few hours later, when he had found a private spot to have some sort of a bath (oh how he missed those...and everyone taking them regularly), when he thought of it.  He gasped into the cool later dripping over his face and shoved the wet bangs out of his face.  Sleipnir.  He had seen Sleipnir.  The eight legged horse of Odin.  But he was not just that.  According to the original mythology, by some way or force, he was Loki's child.  

And he had no idea if it was the same here.

"Stupid!  Stupid!"  He thumped his fist quiety into is forehead.

He couldn't return to the stables now.

~*~*~

And the next time he saw Loki, it was the prince who surprised him.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As one reviewer pointed out (on LJ) they were a bit worried how Sigyn immediately went to wanting to help Loki instead of thinking of logical things (how to survive, how to get home, etc). This chapter was written immediately after the first where some of these things were addressed, but there was a delay. But this is also going with the OP's prompt request in that rather than trying to get home, the character decides to change things for Loki.
> 
> Also, Sleipnir. I have no idea what's really going on with the scene but kept it (I think I'm missing my own became-like-second-set-of-parents and their horses). The person in the rafters is Loki. Slight ambiguity here on whether or not he is Loki's child because, for this story, I don't know XD


	3. Tavern Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sigyn finally, and officially, meets Loki

Sigyn felt ready to fall asleep into his stew.  His head held up by his hand he tried to keep from nodding off.  Everything ached from a day’s work at the blacksmith’s, hauling and hammering and fetching.  It was interesting to see such an old craft firsthand but it was sure different than going to school part to all of the day.  He shifted in his seat and the motion tugged at his ribs.  He hadn’t looked yet but he was pretty sure there was some sort of bruise now.  He had spent the last several nights with a family, a middle aged woman with several children who needed help while her husband and eldest son were away on border patrol.  It had felt like helping his own mother out and he had liked the kids.  And they had liked his stories.  Her husband, however, had a very different idea coming home to find a strange young man sleeping on a pallet in the small room at the back of the house.  Sigyn had awaken between the shouting and the swift kick to the stomach.  He wasn’t sure what exactly was going on but he hadn’t stayed to find out.  

“Don’t you fall asleep on me now.  I get enough of that with the drunkards…”  He looked up at Gertrude, the woman who helped run the tavern with her husband.  She was an older woman, tough as a nail to run a place like this, but kind as well.  The mother of the children had told him to come here to Gertrude if he needed help finding a place to stay.  Gertrude had taken one look at him and smiled, patting his curls with a smile.  He had the feeling that underneath the worlds run by men, the women had an intricate and many stranded web of connections with each other.  “Here’s your drink.  Finish that stew up.  Holler if there’s anything else you need, Sigyn.”  

“Thank you, ma’am.”  Sigyn smiled at her.  She giggled like a girl and turned away, swatting away the feeling hands of a drunken man a few tables over.  

Sigyn sipped at the drink she had brought him.  It was a type of blended fruit juice instead of the alcohol served so ready here in Asgard.  Despite being of age he never really drank at home.  And here it would be a stupid thing to do.  He needed to plan.  To figure out some way to—

A loud, raunchous laugh filled his ears as his table was suddenly jolted underneath him.  A man leaned against it, grin itching for a fight and breath rancid with brew.  He had atleast a hundrend pounds and a foot of height on Sigyn, the same going for the two friends that followed him.  Sigyn calmly blinked up at him and wondered what he could want.

“Your- your-“  The man hiccuped then tried again.  “Your name’s Sigyn?”

“Yes?”  What did his name have to do with anything.  He was pretty sure he hadn’t seen, worked for, or worked with any of them before.

Somehow, his answer amused the man and he slammed his hand on the table with mirth.  His two friends snorted with him.  “That is a girl’s name!”

Sigyn stared at them.  Huh?  Again, what did his name have to go with anything?  Sure, as far as he knew, the name was mostly given to girls.  But he had always figured that was due to the traditional goddess in Norse mythology.  Yet breaking down the meaning of the name itself made it neutral.  Sig came out of sigr, meaning ‘victory or triumph’.  And Yn came out of vin, which in turn meant ‘friend or ally’.  There were always names that came out gender neutral like Casey, Robin, Alex, Jordan… (except Ashley.  Apparently it was too neutral but there was no way in hell Ashley could be a boy’s name).  “And your point?”

The man thought Sigyn’s replies all the funny.  “It’s… it’s the name of a woman!”  The laughter was getting so loud other patrons were looking in their direction.

Sigyn’s eyes flicked around for Gertrude.  “What is your name?”  Sigyn asked.  Maybe if he talked calmly he could diffuse whatever situation was forming.  

The man drew up in pride.  “Ormr.  Ormr Gimpson.”  The other men egged Ormr on as Sigyn worked out the words in his head.  He wasn’t the best at translating Norse-like names, but then he figured it out.  And it took everything in him not to slap a hand to his mouth to keep from cracking up.  “Now that’s a name.  A man’s name dearie.  What happened, this” at the word the man reached down and gripped himself through his pants, “get chopped off and ya suddenly needed a girl’s name.”

Wait… wait… was he getting flyted?  Was this a flyting match??  Oh.  Oh crap.  On one hand he was familiar with the teasing and name calling back home.  But on the other hand, this wasn’t Earth.  If he responded who was to decide whether it would stay a game of words and not melt down into a brawl.  (And his sister was the one with the taser.  Not him.  He was a sitting curly duck thank you very much).  As he thought he watched the man reach out a hand and he knew then what this was about.  The grabby hands.  The way the man’s bloodshot eyes ran up and down his body.

Oh, ew!  Getting hit on by a drunk guy!

Ok then.  If this Ormr wanted to play a flyting, he was going to play at flyting.  

“Ormr you said?  Or was that litli Ongli?”  He curled his finger into a hook, wiggling it back and forth like a worm.  “We should be properly introduced but I wasn’t sure with the noise here.  You said you were the son of gimpa geitir?”*  With the last, still wiggling his finger, he shimmied his shoulders so his bottom would shake.  

Ormr stared down at him in shock.  Sigyn could hear the cogs trying to turn past the booze.  Around them the tavern was whispering with whistles and low hoots.  As the realization came across his face Sigyn felt the ice tingling up his spine.  Oh, that was a bad idea.  He steeled himself as Ormr looked ready to punch.

A mug thunked down on the table in front of Sigyn, the liquid inside sloshing.  “Well,” a calm voice was suddenly at his ear, “I think we all know who won that match.”  The owner settled into the chair next to him.  Sigyn and his sudden companion watched the group of men.  Ormr made to lunge forward but his friends grabbed him, hissing “that’s Prince Loki.”  Quickly bobbing their heads they dragged him back towards their table.  They didn’t make it too far, however, as Gertrude quickly threw them out of the tavern for causing trouble.  

“I don’t know if this makes me stupid or just lucky.”  Sigyn said nervously.  Part of him wanted to spin around and sprint out the door.  Another wanted to hide underneath the table, squeeze his eyes shut, and wish he were home.  The rest stayed put.  Because he knew who was sitting next to him.  

“I think it was rather clever, and therefore you were the victor.”  The green eyes glinted.  He waved a slim hand elegantly towards the glass, indicating for Sigyn to drink.  Sigyn did so, managing to keep his shakes and racing heart from showing.  One sip and he immediately coughed and sputtered to keep it in his mouth and not all over the table.

“Aw, Shadow was right.  This stuff is nasty.”  

He took another sip to be polite and to not insult the man.  But Loki chuckled and took the mug, setting it on the far edge of the table.  “The mead is rather poor here.  The one my mother makes is far superior.”

The words made one corner of Sigyn’s mouth quirk into a grin.  The way Loki said that words made it clear he was fond of his mother.  I’ll have to try it sometime came to mind.  But he couldn’t say that.  It was too familiar.  “I don’t mind giving things a try.  I just don’t like alcohol that much.  Don’t like how it makes my mind muddled and fuzzy.”

Loki watched as the strange young man took a sip from the drink he already and swished it around to get rid of the taste of the mead.  From the color and the smell it was a simple fruit juice.  Was there anything about this young man that wasn’t strange?  He had almost not remembered him, a simple one occasion when he had run into Thor.  Even now in the light of the tavern he could see the fading scratch over his nose.  Yet he had spotted him again when he had laughed at his prank by the fountain.  And finally, when he had been hiding away from those who had not appreciated mischief so much and hid in the stable rafters, he was the hard worker who had come to the stables and worked so well with Sleipnir.  

“You’re not from around here are you?”

The stranger turned to him with a tiny grin.  “Yeah,” it was a word that asked if it was that obvious.  “I’ve only just arrived in Asgard a few days ago.  This was my first day here,” he finished as he tapped the mark on his nose.  “But what I’ve seen so far I’ve liked.”

Sigyn had to be sure not to look directly at Loki as he said the last words.  That would be creepy.  Yet, the more he talked, the calmer he became.  Even if he knew it as his sneaky mission to become friends with Loki, he did genuinely like him.  Sigyn had always made friends easily.  Something about an easy smile and an open face (one that crazies on Trimet took advantage of).  

Loki opened his mouth to reply but heard his name shouted over the din of the tavern.  He had to resist rolling his eyes.  He waved a hand dismissively at Thor.  His brother readily went back to his friends anyway.  There wasn’t any reason for him to hurry back.  “My brother likes to cling to his ‘things’.”

“Older or younger?”

Loki was surprised at the question.  Didn’t he know?  Everyone knew about Thor.  The Golden Prince, the Thunderer, the eldest son of Odin.  “Older…”

Sigyn snorted a laugh.  “I have an older sister myself.  Always pestering and wondering what you’re doing and trying to get you out with them.  Then again, I do it to her all the time too.”  He felt a pang.  He missed her.  Of course he had since she had moved away for college and he doing the same a few years after, but still…  She’d get such a kick out of this.  

Loki took a swig of the abandoned mead, glancing over the mug at Thor.  As if that would ever work with his sibling.  He’d learned long ago that, while Thor could do it to him, he could never do it back to Thor.  

“I’m Sigyn.”

Loki turned back to the young man who had just offered his name so easily.  He was smiling again.  How did someone smile so easily and so genuinely?  And then there were the twinkles.  Little lights in his eyes that he couldn’t tell if it was happiness or mischief.  It wasn’t mocking, or two faced.  Loki would be able tell.  He could always tell.

So.  Time to see what this stranger was really about. 

He turned back to Sigyn, “You don’t know my name already?”

“I think I do… but I’d rather be sure.”  He steadily stared back at Loki.  He had an idea but was uncertain.  That much was true.  Had he ever come across someone who didn’t know who he was?  To be able to tell by sight and conjure up all the things ever whispered about him.

“I am Loki, Second Prince of Asgard, son to Odin Allfather and Frigga.”  Ah well.  Better to chase him away now than to be hurt later.

But Sigyn didn’t.

He smiled again and held out a hand.  Loki could only watch.  Held loosely, palm facing one side, expectant somehow.  “And this is?”

“A handshake.  It’s another way to say hello where I’m from.”  Sigyn decided to drop the hand.  Something so familiar to him could be just as unknown to a different culture.  He was surprised, then, when Loki reached out and took it.  The hand was slightly cool, but with a gentle pressure.  

“Come brother!”

Loki sighed as Thor’s voiced boomed once more.  He could hear his brother and their friends rising from the table and the clinking of coin left to pay for their drinks.  Yet he was surprised at the fleeting thought that he’d rather stay than go home.  Then it was gone.  There was only so much of low taverns he could tolerate.  “I’m afraid it is time for me to depart.”  He rose to leave.  And then words stopped him.  

“We’ll have to visit again sometime~” the words were out of Sigyn’s mouth before he could think on them.  They were heartfelt and truthful.  He liked this Loki a lot, and it was an invitation he would have made to any friend.  But then he realized Loki was staring at him, and then he remembered where he was and just who he was talking to.  

Loki watched as the expression on the young man’s face changed.  He had been startled by the sudden declaration.  He had never been asked something in such a friendly and… normal manner.  His position did not matter.  Sigyn did not care that he was a prince or practiced magic or wasn’t Thor.  The only reason his expression had changed was that Sigyn _had_ suddenly realized he had said something so casually to a prince and that might not seem as proper.  Loki felt his lips curve.  “Yes, I believe I would like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So.... anyone have guesses as who Sigyn's older sister is in this story?


	4. Magic and Tales

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sigyn witnesses Loki's magic.

Sigyn ending up spending the night at Gertrude’s tavern in an empty room in exchange for helping with breakfast in the morning.  It turned out the breakfasts’ were a popular remedy attempt for the hangovers of the night before.  Once things had quieted down Gertrude made her proposal.  One of her friends was Kara, an older widow whose husband was long past and adult children rarely visited her.  In exchange for help around the house and simple every day company, Sigyn could live in one of the free bedrooms.  

The house was nearby.  It would be a secure and stable place to live.  Living there would free up a lot of his time and worry.  Being in one place would make himself easier to find.  Loki would be able to find him with ease.  And now he wouldn’t have to awkwardly explain that his home was on the streets.  

So all Sigyn had to do was wait.  

Okay, yeah, it was all pretty strange.  Waiting for someone to show up and become a friend was odd.  Friendships usually just happened along the way, or didn’t.  But if he wanted to help Loki, if he wanted to change him for the better, it needed to happen.  

He kinda felt like a stalker…  who wasn’t going around stalking.  So he kept himself busy.  He moved into Kara’s house.  She was sweet and kind.  She reminded him a lot of his own grandmother.  She didn’t mind that he was a stranger from outside the city.  Kara took one look at him and declared him a decent boy (and also that he was too skinny).  Sigyn retrieved his things from their hiding place no worse for wear.  He kept them in a small chest Kara let him have since he couldn’t use them otherwise.  Kara had given him a pair of good boots in his size, marveling that he had been working in his bare feet all this time.  He was grateful but now he rather liked not wearing shoes.

As he was packing his things away Sigyn was drawn to check the pockets of his pants.  He shouldn’t have much, just his cellphone and the chalk (now always kept with him) and little bits of baby lint--  Sigyn’s fingers brushed against a cool smoothness.  Pulling it out he realized what it was.  “Oh!”  Part of the locket passed down thru his family.  He had taken it off when he had used the pool at the gym before going to class.  

“Can’t believe I almost forgot this…”  Sigyn viewed it as a type of good luck charm.  Someone way back in the family had made it.  It saw the births and movements of children.  It had traveled with them from the snowy fjords to America, given to the youngest generation when the older generations decided they needed it the most.  Darcy had it for most of her college years and then passed it to him when he had moved across the country to start his own studies.  It was half an oval, rounded on one side and flat on the other.  Some type of clear glass covered the front and within was a wide petal of a deep red color (water lily according to the internet) surrounded by golden curling threads of something (Darcy thought it gold, Sigyn thought it looked more like a lock of hair).  

“You’re staying with me.  I’ll need all the extra luck I can get.”  He tucked it into the pocket of his shirt.  He’d have to get a simpler and longer cord for it so he could wear it around his neck.  

“Sigyn dear?”  Kara’s voice followed her knock at the bedroom door.

“Yes, Grandma Kara?”

“Gertrude sent word.  There is someone looking for you down at the tavern.”  She was smiling softly as Sigyn finished opening the door.  “Have a good time.  And feel free to invite your friend to supper any time.”

He smiled in return.  “Thank you.  And I’ll be sure to let you know beforehand if I do~”

~*~*~

The person searching for him was Loki.

“Hi Loki!”

The prince turned at the greeting.  The tavern woman had gone to the door to greet him.  He had not thought about it before he had decided, on a whim, to see Sigyn again.  He had not found out before where the stranger was living.  And a brief questioning around the area found that few knew where he stayed.  The tavern, as he correctly guessed, had been his best option.

Thor had been bugging him for days to come training with him and his friends.  Loki did not mind at times but he had found he did not learn the best with them.  They were loud and boisterous, all of them relying on power and sheer strength.  That was good and all, yet Loki relied more on finesse.  He was skilled in many arts of war and yet he had his slim size to deal with.  To improve and keep up that skill he needed to practice with others like him.  How better to face an opponent who thought one tiny and weak before finding a dagger between the eyes?

Sigyn was grinning again.  Did this young man do nothing but beam with a sunny disposition?  Thor was similar.  He was annoying.  So far, Sigyn was not.

“You two can take the garden if you’re not going anywhere,” Gertrude motioned to a distant side door.  She dismissed the empty tavern with her other hand. “Some sunshine is better than in here, and quieter in case anyone wanders in.”

“Thank you Gertrude,”  Sigyn said, tucking a stubborn curl behind his ear.  Why was he thanking her?  She was simply doing her duty to her prince.  He wanted peace and quiet, along with privacy.  At least she had the presence of mind to provide it.  Sigyn grabbed them two mugs of something to drink before heading out the door she had indicated.  

He settled into one of the chairs next to an outside table.  “What brings you out today?” Sigyn asked as Loki took the other chair.

Loki merely shrugged.  “Everything and nothing it seems.  I was bored and there is nothing to do in the palace at the moment.”  Sigyn chuckled and made a reply.  Loki listened and at the same time watched his hands.  He had noticed that Sigyn was unusually expressive with them, moving them at times when he talked.  They were in a state between soft and rough, as if what he had been doing changed recently.  Had he been some sort of scholar, hands always in the books?  There were nicks, scratches here and there, parts where the skin was dry or rough.  He had seen him in the stables with his father’s war horse and seemed at ease with both the creature and with the labor.  

The hands settled back to the table and he knew Sigyn had finished for the moment.  With practiced ease he slid back into the conversation, “I think at times all I want is someone intelligent to talk to…”

Sigyn starting cracking up.  He really shouldn’t be laughing.  But he couldn’t help it.  The image had suddenly come to his head of some of his university classes.  Students rudely interrupting the professor in the middle of the lecture, asking the stupidest of questions.  Other students in the front rolling their eyes, palms on their faces, strained sighs.  He knew Loki would have been just like his classmate Michelle, muttering ‘Just shut the f*ck up already…’ under their breath.  “Unfortunately I don’t have my intelligence test on paper anywhere.  Am I still allowed to talk to you?” he grinned cheekily.  

Loki hid his grin with a drink from his mug.  It was good to see some cleverness in someone other than himself.  “For the moment.  But I still might test you later on.”

“Ooooh, can it be riddles?  I love riddles~”  Sigyn shot right back.  Where Fandral or the other warriors might have been offended (after working what he had said slowly out in their brains) Sigyn either simply went along or came right back at him.  Either the boy didn’t pick up when he was teasing, or did.  

Loki made to parry once more when the screeching of a bird rent the air.  Before either of them could move it fluttered by on frantic wings.  Seconds behind it was a street cat, paws swiping at the tail feathers.  It leapt between the two men and up onto the table to reach a ledge that would put it in reach of its prey.  One of the mugs fell victim to the chase, spinning on its edge before tumbling over the side.  Sigyn frantically grabbed for it, eyes wide at the prospect of it shattering, fingertips brushing against it, himself almost falling off the chair after it.  Loki waved a hand.  Magic caught the mug in midair, a bright and shining green.  A quick twitch of a finger caught the spilled contents and swept it back into the mug like quivering beads in the air.  It was easy enough after that to direct the tendril of magic to deposit the mug directly into Sigyn’s waiting hands.

Sigyn stared at him, eyes even wider.  

Loki’s body stiffened as he immediately realized a dangerous fact:  He had used his magic so freely and openly in front of a stranger.  He was comfortable with it.  Magic was a part of him as much as power was a part of Thor and their father.  Yet that was not what troubled him.  It was the reactions of others.  Magic was rare here in Asgard and that meant it was feared more than it was respected.  Loki kept it to himself unless it was absolutely necessary.

So to use his magic around an outsider, a stranger…  Someone he had hoped that would not be like the others…  It was a risk he should have never let happen.

Green eyes slid slowly over to Sigyn.  His face was a mask, steeling himself for what he might find there.  Words were already weaving together in his mind with answers to whatever the young man might say.

The hazel eyes watched the green tinted magic that stayed swirling above the table.  They blinked slowly.  Then, his head tilted a bit to the side.  Curiosity pulled at his cheeks.  A hand reached out, arched out, fingers curled at the midjoint.  They ghosted over the magic, drawing back at the initial touch.  It was not out of an adverse reaction or fear but out of respect to the magic itself.  The hand returned and slowly sank into the green form.  

Sigyn smiled.

“This is magic?”  He asked softly.

“Yes,” Loki answered, the tiniest of breaths, “a form of it.”  Defend.  Apologize.  Disregard it.

“I’ve never seen magic before…”  And that was the truth.  Sigyn had never seen magic before.  Sure, there were things that could be like it in his world.  It was in the movies and on TV.  It was in stories and wild in the imaginations of people.  It was something you talked about, heard about, make yourself think of what ifs and if it was, but to see it in real life…

It was really cool!

So many questions whirled around his head.  Was it alive, what did it feel like to wield it, what could he do with it?  But those sort of things were not to be asked.  Not right now.  Sigyn looked up as the magic moved over his arm.  So many things warred over Loki’s face and yet all of them were forced behind a controlled face.  He realized it must be the face that Loki always put on when others saw his magic.  He moved the arm closer to Loki to return the magic to him.  “Is magic always green?”

Loki laughed.

Starting out as a soft chuckle it soon grew to a wild bark.  Loki covered his eyes with one hand as he struggled to control himself.  He looked back up, tongue sharp and biting, but stopped when he saw in Sigyn’s eyes that the question was sincere.  No mockery.  No shaming.  “…no.  Magic somewhat reflects its user in some way.  If I do not purposely control the appearance of the magic, it tends to be green in color.”  

Just like your eyes.  The words almost came out.  Sigyn knew they were too personal and truthful.  He liked the color of Loki’s eyes.  They suited him and reflected him Sigyn decided as he looked into them without apprehension.  They were much more interesting than his own hazel eyes.  His eyes tended to shift color depending on what kind of light fell on them.  Otherwise, they were boring.  

Loki waved a hand and the magic vanished.  In that same moment something vanished from Loki’s expression.  As if an open glimpse had flittered away.  Just how much did Loki believe he had to guard himself?  Surely there must be other magic users in Asgard…  Surely it was not looked down upon.  It was amazing, Sigyn thought, and surely it would be a great power for the good of the people if used correctly.  Of course if the Norse and their beliefs were anything to go off of more value lay in warriors and physical strength.

“Would you like to feel it?”

Sigyn blinked at the sudden question.  Had he not been holding it just now?  Loki grinned.  A cruel, tiny thing.  Sigyn did not even have time to draw back before Loki’s hand shot out and gripped one of his own.  He sought to protect himself Sigyn realized.  Push and throw them away now then risk pain and cold shoulders later on.

The pale hand slide down his palm and locked around his wrist.  Sigyn instinctively wrapped his own hand around Loki’s wrist to steady himself.  His pulse thudded up against the touch and in turn with this throbbing waves of… something… flooded into him.  Goosebumps immediately raised over his skin and a coolness washed over him.  His eyes slide shut.  If Loki wanted him to experience his magic, he would.

Loki watched.  Underneath the closed lids the young man’s orbs would dart about every now and then.  Breaths came slower and deeper, instead of the frantic and wild pants he expected.  The ash brown curls were slowly rising off the young man’s neck and hovering in the air.  “What are you doing?”  Loki asked under his breath.

“Feeling your magic…” Sigyn answered just as softly.  His bare toes curled against one of the pegs of the bar stool.  He felt like he was floating within his own skin.  It was so hard to describe, other that it was power.  And his body instinctively knew it.  “Wasn’t that what you wanted me to do?”  Without opening his eyes he tilted his head and smiled.  

The feeling drained out of him as Loki’s hand withdrew.  Sigyn could feel as he settled back into his own body.  Taking in a mouthful of air he slowly released it.  Then, he opened his eyes.  

“You did not find it… strange?”

Strange was not the word.  Not with the way Loki said it.  Foreign.  Monsterous.  That was what he wanted to say.  Sigyn shook his head.  “No.  Not really.  I mean, it is strange, but that’s because I’ve never experienced before.”  He shrugged, “It’s not any stranger than both my parents being nurses, yet my sister studies politics and I want to live in the stories of the world.”

Loki looked on as Sigyn grinned sheepishly and ran a hand through his hair.  “Sorry, that’s probably a horrible comparison.  I don’t think your magic is a bad thing…”  It was simply different.  The world needed things that were different.  If everything, and everyone, were the same, how boring would that world be?

The prince turned away and soothed his hands over the table.  The motion covered the words and feelings raised by the subject, Sigyn realized.  It must be Loki’s way of covering the entire incident.  He did not wish to speak of it any more.  

“You like… stories?”  

“Oh yes!”  Loki turned again at the happiness that spilled out with Sigyn’s words.  A light sparked into the hazel eyes.  “They are the best.  A gift to share, person to person, if only there are ears to listen.  My parents always read or told stories when I was a child.  The best were from my grandmamma, the tales told down the lines of her homeland.  There are always here with me.  Then I started hearing other stories, other tales from parts of the world.  How they can be so vastly different and yet within share common threads.  Or even how a story, while still the same at its core, changes with the people or land telling it.”  

Sigyn didn’t realize how his love of legends and tales had spilled out until he saw the corner of Loki’s mouth twitch into something like a smile.  Opps.  It had happened again.  Granted, in the day and age experienced back on Earth, studying mythologies and the like of the world didn’t appear a smart choice.  What life or career could he make of it?  That was what many of his friends and family wondered.  But in turn those same legends were what Sigyn loved.  It was what made him happy.  It was his decision.  So he just had to deal with the looks and whispers people gave him.  “Sorry.  Better stop myself there.  I get really carried away sometimes…”

“No,”  Loki shook his head slightly, “you don’t have to.  Tell me more.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course.”

“Well…  I think my favorite right now is the _Shahnameh_ , or the Persian Book of the Kings.  Before I hadn’t heard many stories from that part of the world, so when I heard someone was teaching on it I decided to take it…”

~*~*~

A few days later Loki say just how Sigyn held the stories to him.  They had spent the afternoon together.  The two men wandered through the artists’ quarter, peering at the items on display and the works in progress.  It was easier to focus on Loki now.  His new home with dear old Kara was working out well.  Sigyn had a place to stay and food to eat and the old woman had help around the house and companionship of someone like a son.  It allowed Sigyn to stay in one place and therefore easy for Loki to find.  The more they visited and interacted the easier it became to talk to Loki.

Sigyn liked him.  It surprised him how quickly it had happened.  He was no longer Loki, Prince of Asgard, God of Mischief, Character of Legends and Comics and Movies.  He was Loki, Sigyn’s friend.  He did not know how Loki himself viewed the relationship but to Sigyn it felt like they had always been friends.  He was certain that, with many circumstances and realities disregarded, if he had met Loki as a stranger on Earth, they still would have become friends.  

“There are visitors at the palace?”  Sigyn asked as they moved between stalls.  

“Mmm,” Loki affirmed, glancing at the next stall before disregarding it, “ambassadors from Alfheim to speak with my father.”

“Ah, so that was the group.  I saw them come through the city this morning.”  Sigyn shifted the basket to his other hand.  After the trip he needed to pick up a few groceries for Kara.  “Shouldn’t you be there?”  True, Loki was his own person and could therefore do whatever he wanted but, as a prince, shouldn’t he be nearby when people from another realm came to visit the king?

“Why?  I have no reason to be.  They’re just Light Elves.”  Loki turned to his companion as he talked.  What a strange thing to say.  Imagine, a prince of Asgard giving any sort of time to elves.

Sigyn only shrugged in response.  “I think it would be interesting to talk with them.  They are from another realm entirely.  What are they like?  What do they do?  How do they view themselves, and how do they view Asgard?”  He had to be careful how he chose his words.  “It might not be useful, or it could very well be.  There are always opportunities to learn.”

“But…why?”  As he moved to further question the young man he saw that Sigyn’s focus was no longer on him.  Sigyn had stopped in the road, looking off to one side.  Loki followed his gaze and found that he was looking at a young child.  A girl, only a few years old, sniveling and lost as people walked around her.  Someone must have wandered away from their mother.  The prince made to move on, but Sigyn instead approached the girl and crouched in front of her.  

“Hey, what’s wrong little one?”  He smiled gently and his voice was soft.  He set the basket down beside them.  A quick check told him that she wasn’t injuried.  Probably just scared at being suddenly alone.  

“I can’t find my mommy…” the girl hiccupped and whipped her dripping nose on her sleeve.

“Uh oh.”  Sigyn crouched closer and touched one of her hands.  “That’s scary.  Was she shopping, and then you couldn’t find her?  You looked up and she was gone?”  He nodded when the girl finally nodded.  “Don’t worry.  She must be nearby and she knows to come looking for you.  But if you move you might get even more lost.  Why don’t I wait with you?”  Taking her hand he moved her out of the street and to a bench a few feet away.  “My name is Sigyn.  What’s your name?”

“R-Rowen…”

“That’s a pretty name, Rowen.  I’ll sit here with you, and my friend will keep an eye out for your mama.  Can you tell us about her?”  He exchanged a look with Loki, silently pleading with him to help.  His mouth opened and closed.  What did Sigyn expect him to do?  Before he could protest, Sigyn continued on.  “To help it not be so scary why don’t I tell you a story.  Have you ever heard the story of the Lion and the Mouse?”

Rowen chewed at a knuckle, sniffling.  She shook her head.  “What’s a lion?”

“Well,”  Sigyn looked around until he spotted a cat and pointed at it, “a lion is a cat, but a very biii~iiiig cat.  They almost look the size of a horse!  They have tauny skin and the males have thick manes.”  Sigyn shook his curls loose and pulled them around his face and under his chin until they resembled a mane.  “Like this!”

The little girl let out a giggle.  As Sigyn continued his voice softly floated over the area.  Soon the ears of other children heard the words of a tale and snuck over.  There wasn’t much Loki could do but keep his eyes open for a distraught looking woman.  Even his ears stayed tuned to the story.  

“The lion is a great, big, powerful cat.  Some people even call him the king of the jungle.  One day, a lion had stretched out for a nap in the shade.  He had been in the sun all day so it was good to lay down and rest.  But then… chik chik chik.  What was that?  Little tiny feet crawling all up and down him!”  Sigyn wiggled his fingers above Rowen’s arm, imitating the tiny feet of the mouse.  “It was a mouse!  Oh, how dare such a tiny thing interrupt his sleep!  The lion caught the mouse up in his paws, smack!”  

Many of the children gasped softly or jumped as Sigyn snapped his hands together.  His voiced deepened into the growl of the lion. “ ‘Grr, why did you disturb me?’ said the lion.”

Then his voice heightened into the voice of the mouse.  “ ‘Please let me go’ begged the mouse, ‘I was only trying to get past you.  Let me go and I’ll come back to help you someday.’”

“ ‘The lion laughed, "You are so small! How could ever help me?"  The lion laughed so hard he had to hold his belly!”  Sigyn held his belly, leaning back with a laugh.  “The mouse jumped to freedom and ran until she was far, far away.”

“The next day, two hunters came to the jungle. They went to the lion's lair.  Sneak.  Sneak.  Sneak.”  Sigyn hunched his shoulders.  He mimicked the hunters tip toeing into the lair.  “They set a huge rope snare, so that when the lion came a great net would catch him. When the lion came home that night, he stepped into the trap. “  He made a sound of the net falling.  And all jumped as if they were trapped underneath it.

“Oh how he roared! Oh how he wept!”  Sigyn curled his hands into paws and tore at the invisible net.  “But he couldn't pull himself free.”  Then he perked up, as if hearing something at a distance.  “The mouse heard the lion's pitiful roar and came back to help him.  The mouse eyed the trap and noticed the one thick rope that held it together.  She began nibbling and nibbling until the rope broke.”  

Sigyn shook his shoulders, straining at ropes unseen until snap!  He was imprisoned no more!  “The lion was able to shake off the other ropes that held him tight. He stood up free again! The lion turned to the mouse and said, ‘Dear friend, I was foolish to ridicule you for being small. You helped me by saving my life after all!’ “

The children cheered at the story’s conclusion.  They talked excitedly amongst each other, or drew closer to Sigyn.  They peppered him with questions with bright faces.  Rowen was smiling now, asking if the mouse and the lion had names.  Loki could only watch on as his mind thought on the story.  He had never seen one of these lions which Sigyn spoke of, but the description sounded familiar.  Yes, now he remembered it was a creature from one of the books describing the animals of—“Prince Loki!  Oh, you found my baby!”  He turned as a woman rushed forward and scoped Rowen up in her arms, scolding the child in the same breath she praised the prince.  

Sigyn only smiled at the girl and waved goodbye as the woman rushed away.  He gently detangled himself from the child, speaking softly and promising that he would come again sometime.  “I have to go back with my friend Loki now.  But I live nearby and would love to tell you more stories.”  He waved goodbye and returned to Loki’s side.  And in his eyes was a happy twinkling the prince could not understand.

~*~*~

_He is excited and scared all in one breath.  Was this really happening?  He had been hoping and praying for this job for so long.  Now it was his.  Now he would be able to work and support his parents and sister.  Working in the palace, though hard, was a job that some people even fought over._

_And now he would be working in the wings of the palace belong to the princes.  Loki.  Prince Loki.  He kept his hands on his tray and pressed it to his chest as if to shield himself.  He knew he wasn’t supposed to look up.  Servants were not to meet the eyes of their betters.  But he did and, oh, how green were those eyes.  Then Loki looked to him and caught his eyes.  Sigyn froze in his spot, feeling his heart thudding in his throat._

_Loki smiled wily and tilted his head.  And Sigyn could feel the heat of the blush fill his cheeks as he ducked his head._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still working on some relationship building/background chapters. I have a lot of stuff planned for later on. Just need to get there.
> 
> Still trying to grasp on how to write Loki. He's my favorite character and yet very tough at times. Going along with both what we see in the movies and the original prompt that Loki also grows at a character. So there are some bits of a selfish prince showing through.
> 
> The end italics is a dream Sigyn is having. They'll be popping up more and more (the reason for them revealed later :P )


	5. The Library

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 6/262015 EDIT: I've updated the chapter to include a work I commissioned of my Sigyn and Loki from the wonderful Nanihoo! <3 I was looking her already wonderful Sigyn drawings and saw she's drawn m!Sigyn too. I posted it to this chapter with her permission. The original work can be found here: http://nanihoo.deviantart.com/art/Commission-for-Becky-536553658 and her art blog is here: http://nanihoosartblog.tumblr.com/ .
> 
> I have another, full color commission coming from her as well <3 Just need to write the chapter where if fits in. 
> 
>  
> 
> Loki has a surprise for Sigyn.

Sigyn could not help his excitement.

Really, he couldn’t!  Loki had left a message for him yesterday.  That, if he was available, he had a surprise for Sigyn.  He liked surprises!  Whatever could it be?  He had never been good at waiting for them.  He always wanted to know.  But he wouldn’t pester Loki… if he could help it.  So he made sure he had the day off from work so they could do whatever it was that Loki had planned.

He was at the meeting spot early, so he wouldn’t be late.  If he was late Loki might decide he didn’t want to show him.  And then might decide they shouldn’t be friends anymore.  That wouldn’t be good.  Even if his plan was to give Loki a friend… he didn’t want to hurt him or get him hurt.  But Loki arrived right on time. 

Loki tilted his head in greeting.  There wasn’t a smile, but there was a happy glint in his green eyes.  He watched as Sigyn hopped down from the stone wall and run to greet him.  The prince indicated the book carried in his arm, “I just need to return this and then you’ll see my surprise.”

“You’re not going to give me even a little hint?”

“It wouldn’t be a surprise then, would it?”

“But trying to figure it out is a marvelous game!  Just a little something?  A riddle?” 

Loki chuckled as he shook his head.  “No.  I think I much rather be cruel and make you wait.  After all, I am master of the surprise.”

The prince couldn’t help smiling.  Sigyn groaned and mumbled under his breath.  “What was that?”  Loki asked with a smirk.  The young man didn’t reply.  Save to bump his shoulder into his playfully as they walked.  He didn’t bother to see the people walking past them.  He was too concentrated on playing this game with his friend.

Sigyn’s eyes looked around them as they walked.  They were heading for a different part of the city that was out of the working area and more towards the palace.  It was interesting to see that it was like many other cities, with a clear line between the working and the high end areas.  This must be the place where the nobles or the like lived.  They continued across it, not stopping, until they drew close to a certain building.  (Ok, he _still_ wasn’t sure how the visuals in the movie had gotten so close to the city).  It was a large building similar in back to the palace but smaller.  The odd thing about it was that several parts made up the building, and that it floated.  Several parts rotating around a central cylinder that slowly lowered and raised. 

“What is this place?”  Sigyn asked in awe as they drew beneath it.  At their arrival, stairs appeared from the pathway and rose into the air until it reached the central pillar, which had paused several feet off the ground.  He followed Loki up the stairs, where it connected to two large doors flanked on either side by guards.  Seeing their prince a guard nodded and opened one of the doors.  Sigyn could feel their glances but his own eyes were on what was inside.

“Our library,” Loki told him as he approached the desk that stood across the wide foyer.  A scholar looked up at their arrival and withdrew a ledger in which he would note the return of the book.  The private library of the royal family held much more interesting gems, but every now and then he would find things of interest at the public library. 

“A library…”  So this is what the structure was!  It was huge, if the other floating parts also included books and materials.  He had thought the Central Library of Portland was big, what with its five floors and two hidden basements.  It was always dangerous for him to go in there.  If it didn’t trap him for several hours he would leave with his arms and backpack heavy with new books.  He loved walking through the tall stacks and seeing the covers of books old and new.  And the carvings on the black marble staircase that connected all the floors.  There were many pictures and things hidden in the pattern, but with so many people walking past him, he could never find them all. 

The next thing Loki knew Sigyn had darted away to the nearest bookcase.  It held the newest acquisitions of the library that were available.  The slim hand hovered over the covers, seeing as well as touching their titles and designs.  He’d pick one from the shelf, flipping through a few pages while happily murmuring to himself.  It would then be replaced and another would come to his hand.  “A library!”  Sigyn laughed breathlessly as Loki came to his side.  “What a wonderful surprise!”

Sigyn’s head was already turned back to the book, so he did not see Loki’s moment of shock.  He had simply been returning a book.  He had then planned to take Sigyn on a tour of the palace.  He had only ever seen the stables as far as Loki knew.  And who wouldn’t want to see the grandness  of the place the royal family lived?   Yet the more he thought of it Loki realized why Sigyn would think the library was the surprise.  Why had he not thought of it before?  Considering Sigyn’s claim for his love of stories… and the way his eyes were all alight now…

So Loki craftily claimed Sigyn’s assumption.  “Yes.  I thought you would like seeing it.  I can give you the tour if you like…”

“Oh yes!”  Sigyn carefully set the book back on the shelf before following the prince.  Loki could even feel the excitement flowing out of him.  “Is this the palace library?”

“No.  Think of this of a library for the city and for Asgard.”

“So the public can come here?”

“Yes, for the most part.  The more sensitive items are kept in the palace.”  As they walked Sigyn would occasionally move to a shelf if something particular caught his eye.  He had great care with the items and always made sure to return it where it came from.  The more they walked and Loki spoke of the library, the more he realized one thing.  That he was glad that he had decided to change this to the surprise.  It was not as if he spent his whole life locked in his rooms in a book, as much as Thor claimed he was, but he liked to read and he liked the knowledge.  It was… good to see that same love in someone else. 

“What kind of sections does the library have?”  Sigyn asked.

“Much of it is history or records.  But there are many other collections.  Things on geography, naturals, arts, literature, stories.  There are also many books from the other realms that have them.”  He stopped at one of the transporting circles that allowed movement between the different portions of the library.  He held out his hand and after a moment Sigyn took it.  Sigyn pressed close to his body as the simple magic worked to move them.  Sigyn looked behind him and down at the circle after they arrived, forgetting for several moments to let go of his hand.  “Oh, so that’s how you move between!”

“Yes.  The different sections are housed in different places.  It helps keep track of the materials, as well as allow for some privacy.  You can pick out some things to read and then I’ll show you my favorite spot.”  At the suggestion Sigyn burst into a smile.  He was soon gone, lost amongst the stacks.  Loki found a few books to keep him entertained.  The idea was growing on him.  A quiet afternoon to do as he pleased.  Sigyn eventually returned, arms full with a variety of material, and followed Loki to a private niche.  A window seat before a large window that let in plenty of light.  A table in front to hold the materials. 

They settled into their reading and were soon each lost in their own book.  The building slowly turned, hardly to be felt.  Sigyn would flip through a book, reading it for a time, then moved to another.  It wasn’t until he settled on one that Loki noticed it.  He had been seeing it out of the corner of his eye.  As Sigyn read, his mouth moved silently.  One hand would slowly move beneath the words and the other hand twitched over the table.  As if writing, as if translating. 

“Can you read our writing?”

Sigyn looked up.  He tucked his loose ash brown curls back so he could see the prince.  The young man nodded, his hand still on the book.  “I can.  Perhaps not with much fluency.”

“I could teach you.”

Sigyn started at the sudden offer.  It was something he would have never expected.  Especially from the person that Loki seemed to be.  Or appeared in all the stories.  He couldn’t help the grin that tugged at his lips.  “I’d love that!  But, but I couldn’t.  That’s far too much trouble and I could teach myself…

Loki waved the protest away.  He stood and motioned for Sigyn to follow him.  “We’ll find some paper and writing utensils.  And perhaps some less complex books to work out of.”  They quickly retrieved what they needed.  Sigyn had the excellent idea to work out some of the children’s materials in the library had. 

As they sat, side by side at the table, Loki taught him.  He knew his alphabet and had a sufficient basis to start from.  He had either been taught or learned the writing system up to a point.  The thought floated in the back of his mind that this might not be Sigyn’s first language.  There was a pause between things as he thought.  And many times Sigyn would make other marks near the runewriting that Loki did not recognize.  He also realized that working from the children’s section was not the greatest idea.

“Sigyn, you’re supposed to be translating, not reading far ahead.”

“But I want to find out what happens!  How does he get the princess to say “That’s a story!”?  And why would anyone name their child Boots?”

~*~*~

Thor paced the grounds in front of the stable.  Sif and the Warriors Three waited nearby with their horses.  Where was Loki?  He knew they were leaving on their hunting trip.  He had told him himself just the other night.  He was supposed to come with them.  It would be fun!  Maybe he could finally convince Loki to hunt with a weapon instead of cheating with his magic. 

But even with all the time he waited, Loki failed to appear.  “Are we going or not, Thor?”  Fandral sighed.  He wanted to leave.  Otherwise, there was a lovely maiden calling him for the night.

“I guess he does not wish to come.”  Thor threw up his hands in defeat.  He motioned for a stable hand to take Loki’s horse back into the stable.  He mounted his own stead and grinned to his friends.  “If he does not wish to tell us, let him!  We shall have fun without him!”

One of the scholars finds the two late at night as he is readying to leave.  One of the lights in glowing dimly on the table.  Books are open and sheaves of paper are written upon.  He recognizes Loki, the second prince, curled on the window seat with an open book on his chest.  The young man next to him with the curls he does not.  He is leaning over the table, head resting on his cross arms, a smudge of ink on the bridge of his nose.  The scholar smiles and dims the light.  It is wonderful that the prince has brought a friend with him. 

~*~*~

_He’s not really sure what he is wearing.  It might be a dress, or it might be a long robe.  He could even be in the body of a woman.  He can’t be sure.  But the music.  Ah, the music!  He sways in place, humming softly along with the tune.  All about the room people are dancing.  Elegant and graceful.  Oh if he could only join._

_One moment the thought is there and the next his hand is caught.  He stumbles out onto the floor and into a firm body.  He moves instinctively, blending into the dance, before he looks up to see who his sudden partner is.  Green eyes blaze back at him underneath a black mask.  It is him!  The man they call the Prince.  No one has ever seen his face.  No one knows where he comes from or where he goes.  But every story is a tale of accidents, pranks, and mischief.  The opera house is his playground and they are all this witnesses._

_“Ah, my little gem,” the Prince whispers in his ear, “shall we give them a dance to remember?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ending in italics is once again a dream, this time somewhat inspired by Phantom of the Opera. 
> 
> This should be the last sort of slow chapter. I'm still trying to develop/keep from world building.


	6. Yggdrasil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look! This story isn't dead!
> 
> I think I might have to warn people that this is trying to become the Marvelous Misadventures of Loki and Sigyn, Through the Nine Realms. And I might just let it...

“Is the Tree a physical tree or something like a metaphorical tree?”

The sudden nature and the oddity of the question made Loki set his book down. Sigyn was curled up on the opposite end of the window seat. His own book was propped against his bent knees but he did not read. His head was propped up against his palm and his eyes looked out the window over Asgard. The Library had turned so that it currently looked out over the waters towards the Observatory. In the past few weeks the two young men had spent much of their free time together at the library. When they weren’t exploring the city or sharing things one had discovered to the other. “What tree?”

“The World Tree. Yggdrasil.” Hazel eyes turned to look at the prince. “I mean, is it a tree so huge we can’t see if, or invisible? Or is it a way to explain the connection between the realms?”

Loki tried to hide the smile twitching at his lips with his hand. It did not work very well. The chuckles could be heard above it. Sigyn narrowed his eyes. “Hey! I’m serious! Don’t laugh. I’ve never seen it so I was simply wondering…” He tried to puff out his cheeks in annoyance. But his mock anger did not last long. He laughed softly along with Loki, knowing how silly the question must sound to someone who was born in these worlds.

The prince shook his head. With a rare silence he set his book down before taking Sigyn’s and placing it near his. He motioned for Sigyn to follow him. Curious, the young man followed. “Where are we going? Is there a painting or tapestry?”

“No. It’s better than those.” The green eyes sparked with conspiracy. He knew what he was doing. And he was going to surprise his friend with it. “I forget sometimes that you’re from outside the city. Even then most people will only see it a handful of times.” The scholars nodded goodbye at their passing. With all the time the two had spent those that lived and worked at the library knew them well. The prince had often been a figure as a small boy, but then he had been alone. It was good to see him with a friend, especially with someone as bright and inquisitive as Sigyn. There wasn’t a section of the archives the two hadn’t poked into, even some that the scholars rarely saw themselves.

Sigyn quickly recognized that they were heading to the stables. He had worked there a handful of times since coming to Asgard. The whole thing felt like an extensive dream that went on and on without waking. Yet if he truly was here from his world Sigyn had come to the conclusion that he had to accomplish something to return. At least that’s how it went in all the stories… But that was if he wanted to return. Sure, life was harder, but it was also different. He liked the little home he shared with Old Kara and the jobs he worked. Most of all, he liked spending time with Loki. “Is the tree in the stables?” He teased.

“Yes, Sleipnir eats it and each night it is reborn as a seedling,” Loki answered without missing a beat. Once they arrived he called for his horse and one for Sigyn. It wasn’t until the stable hands had brought a gelding out for Sigyn that he realized he knew not whether the young man could ride. He knew Sigyn was familiar in the care of horses, but that didn’t mean much where a good number of the stable hands couldn’t ride. Yet Sigyn easily swung himself upwards and chatted with the saddler as he helped adjust the stirrups. He sat with ease, elbows at his waist and hands set on the reins instead of the horn when he wasn’t patting the horse’s neck.

Loki was just ready to leave when he heard a hail-shout behind them. A soft groan escaped his lips. With that shout, and those footsteps, he knew who it was. Of course. Just when he was all set to do something of his own Thor always showed up. “Brother! Where are you off to?” Thor planted himself by Loki’s horse. By the state of his hair he had just now gotten out of bed. And by his stance he seemed annoyed that Loki had not been there to greet him.

“Sigyn and I are off to Yggdrasil.” Loki offered no more. His original plan had not included his brother. He knew Thor would sigh and quickly become bored with the outing. His groans and pointed mutterings would haunt him as he tried to show Sigyn all the secrets he knew of the tree. Although… perhaps he should invite his brother along all the same.

“Who’s Sigyn?” And there went that idea. Of course Loki had mentioned Sigyn before! Several times to his family around meals and more to Thor when his brother wondered where he was off to. Loki groaned. Did Thor pay attention to anything? How would he run a kingdom when he couldn’t remember those important to his family members? Sigyn, however, smiled amiably and learned forward to wave at Thor. “That’s me. Hi there! I—“

Thor raised a golden eyebrow at the young man. Then he turned back to his brother. “That sounds boring. Why don’t you wait and join me for a hunt? Fandral has heard of a bilgesnipe near the mountains and would only take us four days to get there. We could—“

“As wonderful as that sounds Thor, I’ll have to decline.” Loki settled more into his saddle and prepared to leave. “I think we all remember the last time you tried to hunt the creature. Or do you remember who had to explain to the healers your exquisitely bruised backside?” Thor flushed and tried to recover. Pale lips quirked in amusement at him. Loki leaned down to pat his arm. “Don’t worry, brother. I’ll make it up to you when I return later. You can drag me into an adventure then.”

“At least my adventures are better than a boring old tree!” Thor shouted from the door of the stable as the two rode off. Sigyn watched the older prince over his shoulder. Thor tossed his hands as if dismissing them before turning back to the palace. Despite the words of the interaction, even he could see the little bonds of brotherhood peeking through. There was relationship there. But was it strong enough to support Loki when he needed it? He thought on it as they made their way out of the city. People parted before the horses when they were in the roadway, and some bowed their heads when they saw it was their second prince. The gelding was a good horse, though he tried to take off in strange directions or failed to respond to Sigyn’s cues. That’s when he realized what he was doing wrong. “Sorry boy,” Sigyn apologized as he shifted his seat back to neutral. “I forgot that not every horse is gait trained like a Tennessee Walker. Though you are quite gorgeous enough to be a show horse.”

Once they were out of the crowded city Loki picked up the pace. He nudged his mare into a canter and Sigyn kept right up beside him. The wind whipped the curls out of his tie so that they bounced with the horses movements. Loki knew a miniature race was coming by the glint in his eyes. Soon there was laughter in the air and playful accusations of cheating when it was finished. Sigyn twisted every direction in the saddle to take in all the scenery. It was beautiful. Like the sweeping rolls of countryside in Oregon or tucked away in upstate New York. Or New Zealand. Actually, Sigyn had to bite his lip to keep from geeking, he kind of felt like a member of the Rohirrim from Tolkien’s work. Off to save Gondor or protect the border. Opps. Better pay attention and follow Loki.

They passed between two great rolling hills and Sigyn suddenly found himself riding towards a lake. Out of that lake rose a great thick root. And out of that root arose the mightiest tree he had ever seen. He rubbed at his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. Surely he would have noticed something this massive from a great distance. It was bigger than a skyscraper. It was bigger than a mountain. He craned back in his saddle and still couldn’t see the top, only hints of branches stretching out over the sky. In fact it almost looked like both sky and space hung from the branches. Yet, while he was looking at a physical tree, it also seemed like the tree wasn’t actually there. If he stared too hard or didn’t look directly at it the tree seemed to fade away.

Loki watched Sigyn. It was amusing how utterly entranced the young man was by the tree to the point he didn’t realize his horse was still moving. The hazel eyes were filled with such raw wonder even he could feel it. His mouth moved as if trying to say something but then he appeared to give up. As nothing he could say would be adequate in the face of the tree. “I guess it’s everything and nothing I thought it was…” Sigyn finally whispered. “Can… can we get closer?”

“Of course.” Loki answered. They rode to where the earth seemed to meet with the base or trunk of the tree. The horses were allowed to wander to graze on the sweet grass that grew all around. Sigyn stood for several moments and curled his toes into it. The grass was both cool and soft under his soles. He had the sudden urge to throw himself down on it to stare for hours and hours up at the sky. He jumped when Loki’s voice chuckled in his ear, “And here I thought you wanted to see the Tree. If you just wanted the grass I could have brought you anywhere.”

His friend followed a few steps behind as Loki led him closer to the tree. He could feel the bare feet walking beside him with slow, almost reverent steps. He turned and saw that Sigyn hesitated for several moments. Hazel eyes flickered about to take in the Tree; he could almost imagine the wild thoughts that must be running around his head. His friend took in a deep breath and squared his shoulders. “Can I touch the Tree?”

Loki blinked. What a strange question! But Sigyn seemed to need some sort of permission before he would get any closer. He drew up next to it before slowly reaching out with gentle fingers that finally brushed over the bark. The hands rested against it as all apprehension left Sigyn’s body. He smiled at the tree, looking over to him excitedly before he leaned forward and pressed his ear against it. The wonder-filled eyes closed contentedly and Sigyn seemed to simply _listen_. Every now and then a finger or toe would twitch before curling closer to the tree. Soon the curiosity was too much and Loki drew to the Tree to do the same. What was he listening to?

It was just so… odd! Sigyn had spent plenty of times with trees back home. He had felt something like this before. That feeling one would get when standing alone in a great forest, where everything was loud and yet so quiet at the same time. Yggdrasil felt like that and yet entirely different. It was like he could hear, he could feel, the Tree living and dying. Water being pulled into its veins from three sources, one near and the other two far away. Wind arose from the very top. Something nibbled both its branches and its roots. Feet scurried up and down the great expanse of its bark. And then, deep down beneath it all, sounded the faint and roaring thuds of millions of heartbeats rising and falling. Sigyn finally took his ear from the Tree, and shivered. He finally regained his voice as he looked back to the prince. “Thank you, Loki.”

Whatever Loki might have said was drowned out by a sudden creak in the World Tree. Bits of bark rained down as the sound of claws drew closer. Branches suddenly appeared above their heads with bright golden leaves that broke free as they shook. A large, furry head popped out followed by an even fluffier tail. A squirrel! Well, it was a squirrel, but this one was bigger than a horse! It blinked rapidly at the two and _smiled_ when it caught sight of Loki. It scurried in great wild circles on the trunk until with a loud pop it transformed into a squirrel of a more reasonable size. “Well if it isn’t my favorite Loki-prince!”

The squirrel spoke with a high voice as it landed on a branch that appeared slightly lower than eye level. It sat back on its hunches as he looked to Loki. The tail twitched excitedly as the little paws rubbed together. “I’m the only Loki-prince you know.”

“Oh, you don’t know that. I might know very many and you just happen to be my favorite. How have you been? Any tasty news from Asgard? Learned any transformations that this-teacher didn’t know yet?” Then, suddenly, the squirrel turned to look at Sigyn. “Who’s that? Never seen him before. Nope, no. Would have remembered anyone with eyes that big and leaves sticking out of his hair. That isn’t Thor. Too slim and much more bright. Hello hello there.”

Sigyn couldn’t keep from grinning. The squirrel didn’t seem to have any need to breath between sentences. And while he hadn’t been expecting his original size, he knew exactly who the creature was. “My name is Sigyn. Loki brought me to visit the Tree, since I’ve never seen Yggdrasil before. You could only be Ratatosk.”

That, apparently, was the appropriate thing to say. For Ratatosk gave a thrilled screech and spun in circles. When he finally stopped he threw his hands up like an exasperated human might. “Finally, finally! Oo I like him Loki. Can I have him? Everyone always asks him I’m Ratatosk, or if that’s a different squirrel. What other creature is great enough to run up and down the tree? What other creature is clever enough to keep that fool eagle and lazy dragon entertained? Why, do you see any other squirrels here??”

“No Ratatosk. You can’t have him. He’s my friend.” Loki ignored the tirade. It must have been something he had heard before. Many, many times before. Motioning to the squirrel, Loki explained. “Ratatosk was the one who helped me discover my shape-changing abilities and became my teacher. At least when transforming my size.”

“How else do you think an itty bitty creature this size would get up and down the tree? I think an ordinary squirrel would have popped off and died by now. Don’t you?” Ratatosk hopped closer to Sigyn. “You don’t have any changing, unfortunately. Can’t help you there. But do you have anything to eat? I’m starving here!”

Sigyn reached into his pockets to check. One held the piece of chalk that had come with him. The inside pocket of his shirt held the journal that he always took with him. In the other pocket of his pants he held the handful of nuts Kara have him this morning as a snack. “Would you like these? I don’t know if—“ It seemed a little harsh to assume that Ratatosk would love nuts as squirrels back home would. However, it wasn’t a mistake here. With an astonished screech Ratatosk launched himself into Sigyn’s hand, scooped up the nuts, and bounded into his hair to eat them. While Sigyn couldn’t see what he was doing, he could hear the almost rapturous sighs as he ate them. He looked to see that Loki was highly amused at the sight of a squirrel almost making a nest in his hair. “Did I just make a friend?”

“Yes, you most certainly did.”

“Oh I love you. I love, love, love you. What do you want? A funny joke for a belly laugh? A scale from the dragon? A feather for the eagle? The least I can do is get these leaves out of your shiny curls.” Sigyn felt little paws moving through his hair. Bright golden leaves began to flutter down. He held up a hand to catch some. “May I keep some, Ratatosk? To remember coming to see you?” The squirrel chirruped yes before bouncing to his hand to deliver them, then back to the tree.

Stomach content, Ratatosk launched into a story of the most recent insults he had carried up and down the tree. Loki listened with rapt attention, amused by most of them. Sometimes he would offer something else to tell them, or new insults to continue the mischief. Sigyn listened for a while. Then, inevitably, his curiosity got the better of him. He wandered away to explore the Tree and the things that grew around it. While the one main root stretched out into the lake, there was a great many smaller roots that twisted out of it or the trunk into the ground. He peeked into the crevices they made, often finding a hiding place or where something had nested. In one he found a deep hole that fell downwards out of sight. A light wind moved up from it and with it the cloying scent of decay. Sigyn covered his mouth and quickly drew away. He wasn’t about to fall in or draw the attention of Nidhogg, the corpse-eating dragon the myths said lived at the base of the tree.

After that he drew closer to the lake. It must be Urd’s Well, or Urðarbrunnr, where it was said that Yggdrasil drew a third of its water. He wondered if the stories were true about the Aesir riding to the well every day to hold court. Or perhaps it was done at one time but not anymore. He’d have to ask Loki. He had just began looking through the crystal clear water at the white muddy bottom when a loud splash caught his attention. Looking up, he saw that some type of jar or basin had fallen into the lake and was quickly floating away from land. On the opposite shore stood three women watching it drift away. One was an old woman, with hair grey and body bent with age. The second was a middle aged woman, with wrinkles just started at the edges of her eyes and hands worn from work. The third was a young woman, supple and beautiful, carrying a baby in her arms. She tried to shift the baby to one arm as she made to approach the water.

“Wait! I’ll go get it for you!” If she tried to go into the lake she might slip and fall with her baby. The other two might not be strong enough or be weighed down by their long dresses. Taking out the journal and laying it on the shore along with the leaves he splashed into the lake, quickly entering deeper waters. The cool mud of the bottom sloped away and Sigyn was soon swimming through the clear water. The water was strange. It made his skin buzz and tingle, and barely put up any resistance to his body. He soon reached the lost basin and began pushing it to the opposite shore. By the time he presented it to them he stood soaking from head to foot on the shore. The middle aged woman bobbed her head in thanks before taking it from him.

“That is very helpful,” she said.

“It was,” answered the oldest

“It will be,” finished the youngest.

Three sets of eyes turned to him. And Sigyn suddenly had the distinct feeling that these were no ordinary women. They could see right into and through him. Even down to the baby, who he could somehow tell was both newly born and a girl. Yet for an infant she seemed to have eyes that were very old.

“A young man from a different place, out of time and within time. He didn’t know how he got here, and didn’t know if it was right to stay.” The old woman croaked.

“A young man trying to do right. But is it right? He seeks to help and yet his actions of now are unknowing.” The middle aged woman continued. “What is it that you are doing.”

“To love and to lie. To speak and to hide. To heal and to hurt. Spread out like the many threads, which will be the weaving and which will be the unraveling?” The youngest woman finished. Then together in one voice they said his name. The newborn cooed and held out a chubby hand. Sigyn felt himself drawn forward until he reached out with an outstretched finger to touch one of hers.

Sigyn jumped. Though whether from the touch of the newborn’s finger or Loki’s shout behind him he would never know. He turned to see the prince running towards him. While he did not seem anger there seemed to be something akin to apprehension in his eyes. “What are you doing? I turned around and you weren’t there…”

Sigyn felt like a child. And he sort of had been. He had wandered off when he should have stayed near Loki. “Sorry. They lost their basin in the water and I went to get it for them.” Yeah, the water basin for the _Norns_ of all people.  The Norns were the women who lived at the tree Yggdrasil. Not only did they care for it by drawing water from the well and patching its trunk with the white mud, they also wove and spun the lives of people. There had seemed to be a fair number of them in the stories, but there was always three that were chief among them. And he had just blundered through their lake without permission.

Loki looked between Sigyn and the women. He slowly drew up protectively next to him. But he was sure to keep his arms at his sides. “The swans could have gotten it for them,” Loki gently pointed out. Sigyn looked to where Loki mentioned. Staring up out of the water with dark eyes were two white swans. They seemed to tilt their heads, deciding what they thought of him, then silently swam away. When Sigyn looked back he saw that the women were still focused on him. The eldest stood with her hand out to him, the middle holding slick white mud in her hands, and the last holding the basin suddenly filled with water in her free arm. Unable to guess their intentions, the eldest gently prodded Sigyn. “You gave me something.”

Gave her something? No, he hadn’t… Yet as he thought it Sigyn realized that she was actually asking him to give her something. Instinctively he reached into his pocket and pulled out the piece of chalk. It was wet and slick in his hands. The old woman took it and passed it to the middle woman, who pressed the white mud around it. She then passed it to the young woman, who carefully balanced everything as she rinsed the chalk clean in the water. Without a word she returned it to Sigyn and, suddenly, the four were gone.

It was then that Sigyn realized three things. The first was that, somewhere, had been an important test, one which he had passed. The second was that despite his recent swim in the lake he was now completely dry. And the third, he realized as he looked down to tuck the chalk back in his pocket, was that his clothes were now completely white. His skin was its normal color, and he would see in a mirror later that is hair and eyes were unaffected, but the color in the clothes had been bleached out. “What just happened?” Sigyn asked as they made their way back to the horses. He made sure to retrieve his journal. He tucked the leaves between the pages before climbing into the saddle.

“You just met the Norns,” Loki answered thoughtfully. Once, he turned he looked back at the Tree to see if they reappeared. “They are Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld. They are knowing women but often keep to themselves. It is they who care for the tree.” He suddenly turned to Sigyn with a sly grin. “There must be a bit of a mischief maker in you to touch the lake and the basin. But whatever you did, did not anger them. For you are unharmed. Thor wasn’t so lucky once. He thought the lake was a perfect place to take a bath and lost Mjolnir for it.”

“Oh…” Part of Sigyn wondered if that was event that was the tale of Thiassi the giant. But he did not ask. For within his mind was whirling. Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld. Past, Present, and Future. They had known exactly who he was, where he came from, and what he was doing. In their words, had they also predicted his future? Sigyn then asked what had been on his mind since he first saw her, “And the baby?”

“The baby? She is Skuldurðr.”

Future-Past. The circle. The cycle.

Oh dear.

~*~*~

That night after returning home Sigyn found himself unable to remain thinking on what just happened. He know he should be. Loki had assured him that he wasn’t in any sort of trouble. Sigyn had mostly explained to Old Kara what had happened to his clothes, but he couldn’t bring himself to let her redye them for him. Right now they sat folded atop his trunk. With them was the journal, the day’s events carefully written down with the golden leaves from Yggdrasil tucked with them. He had studied the chalk, wondering what the Norns had done to it, but he didn’t notice everything different.

But something had to be. Why would they have asked for it? And why would they have talked to him if there wasn’t something important he needed to know?

Instead, Sigyn found himself excitedly planning for something a week or so off. It had come to him by the lake. Loki’s birthday was soon. He needed to get a present for him. No. He should make something instead! But what? He fell asleep raising and rejecting ideas, all while trying to figure out how he was going to get into the party for Loki at the palace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some misconceptions happen when one looks at Yggdrasil and the Norns in the original Norse Mythology. The Norns are compared to the Fates and are given the linear Past, Present, and Future names. In fact, while Greek time is rather linear, Norse is more circular. Its also why Yggdrasil is described as living and dying at the same time. In fact, while researching into the language for names of the Norns, Old Norse doesn't even have future tense like most languages. I tried to point out this difference in by their names and the creation of a forth, Skuldurðr, Future-Past.


	7. Danse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki's birthday

Loki tried not to awaken for the day disappointed. He had to give them a chance. After all, what were the chances they would forget again? Surely someone during the day would remember. The unfortunate part, however, was that it meant Loki could not leave the palace. Part of his fool mind had gotten the idea that the moment he left would be the party, or a surprise gift, or a well wish whispered with a smile. Loki used to look forward to his birthday with the same enthusiasm as Thor. They had been younger days of games and feasting, private moments with just the four of them. Not of late.

They had forgotten his birthday on quite a few occasions now.

He’d much rather be anywhere else. Playing tricks in the market place. Exploring the realms. Stealing down to the city to see if Sigyn was free. By the time the evening meal drew close, Loki knew he should have given himself the gift of a day to himself. He had seen all the members of his family, all his friends, the court, and no one had wished him a happy birthday or a good new year of life. He didn’t really need it. It really didn’t actually do anything. But still…

Movement down one of the halls caught his eye. A figure approaching and a guard stepping out to meet him. By the time the figure stepped up to talk to the guard Loki saw he knew him. Sigyn. He had to bite his lip to keep from chuckling. He was nearly all the way to the throne room and still walked barefoot as always. After a few moments Sigyn’s brows drew together and he unconsciously puffed his cheeks in annoyance. He handed a note to the guard and as he did so caught sight of the prince. The hazel eyes twinkled as they always did when he laughed or smiled. He pointed to the note before winking conspiratorially and heading out of the palace.

The guard took his time bringing him the note. “My prince, someone arrived with a message for you. He appeared of low birth, so I sent him away.”

Loki glared as he snatched up the note. “That ‘low birth’ is a friend and hereby comes again to see me is allowed in immediately. Understood?” The guard’s face paled as he nodded. The princes often wanting nothing to do with the lower classes that visited since they often interfered or pestered the princes. All the guards were instructed to keep such people away. The change, especially from the younger prince, was unexpected.

Loki quickly read over the note. It was written in a much stronger hand than when he had first taught Sigyn the language. There were almost no hesitation marks now. The letters were still curved somewhat compared to the angular lines of the futhark. A holdover from the original alphabet Sigyn had learned as a child. It asked if Loki would join him when convenient. As long as he wasn’t stealing him from his family. If so, would Loki please meet him in the little garden Sigyn gave directions to? He didn’t reveal why or what he wanted. It was up to Loki to figure it out despite purposely not leaving any clues in the note.

Loki was distracted all throughout dinner, pecking at his meal. What did Sigyn want that he was so cryptic? There was nothing of interest in conversation around the table. Neither from his parents or his brother. He finally rose, excusing himself for the evening. No one stopped him or wondered where he went. The instructions were for a little garden they had once eaten their lunch from the tavern at. At this time of evening the area was private and few walked nearby.

When he rounded the corner Loki saw how the garden had been transformed. Lanterns hung from the branches or tucked along the winter-barren ground to give the space a merry glow. A small table with two chairs had been set up for them to share. Sigyn turned as he heard Loki approach. When he saw who it was he threw his arms in the air and shouted “Surprise! Happy Birthday, Loki!” The prince could only blink at him in stunned silence. He had made all of this… for him? Sigyn motioned for him to sit in one of the chairs. “Come sit while I get you a piece of cake~”

“Cake?” Loki watched as Sigyn carefully removed a covered cast iron pan from where a brazier was keeping it warm. It revealed some sort of puffy baked dessert. It smelled delicious—He let out a tiny gasp as the cake collapsed. Sigyn only smiled. “It is supposed to do that.” He cut Loki a large piece and set it before him. Next to took a brightly yellow colored fruit and carefully sliced it in half to squeeze the juice over the cake. Finally he sprinkled powdered sugar through a sieve atop the cake. He did the same for his own piece before sitting down. By the look on his face Sigyn waited for him to try it first, so he took a bite. It was light, almost in flaky layers. The cake itself wasn’t very sweet, seasoned with hints of vanilla and cinnamon. The sugar and fruit juice, lemon he realized, made a wonderful contrast as he tasted it all together in his mouth.

“It’s delicious.” Loki exclaimed. His tongue darted out to like some of the powdered sugar from the corner of his mouth. He wasn’t overly fond of sugary desserts, so this was an excellent balance. “What is it called?”

“Dutch Baby, though why the baby, I’ve never been able to find out.” Sigyn was glad Loki liked it. It had been difficult to make a cake with Asgard’s limited ingredients. The oven temperatures couldn’t be regulated or numbered like he was used to, and he was pretty sure frosting would have made any look at it leerily. His surro-mama sometimes made Dutchbaby pancakes for breakfast and he knew it from memory. Out of everything only the lemon had been difficult to obtain. The exotic grocer had probably made the price for the single lemon exorbitant (he had to work for him two weeks for the damn thing) but Sigyn didn’t mind. Once they had finished the cake, Sigyn brought out the presents.

“Gifts as well?”

Sigyn couldn’t help hearing how surprised Loki sounded. Did they not give gifts in Asgard? Or… had his family forgotten the event today? He assumed the town had since there was no celebration, but Loki had been at the palace all day… Surely his own parents and brother… Sigyn thought it best not to speak of it at the moment. The first gift was a large glass jar of honey, tied with a short green ribbon with a little nametag attached. On one side ‘Loki’ was written in futhark, and the other in his usual writing. Sigyn hadn’t realized his mistake until the curved letters were already on the paper.

“I learned how to make it today by helping Kara. I wanted you to have it. I only took a little spoonful out to make sure it tasted good since I’ve never made honey before.” Kara had bees on the farm her grown sons kept. It was warmer there, as opposed to the mild winter the city was experiencing. While it had been interesting learning how to make it, he had wanted to share it with Loki. He wished he had had more time to wrap or decorate the jar.

“It looks delicious,” Loki answered, admiring its color. Sigyn then passed him the last gift. It was wraped in a simple cloth, since Asgard had no wrapping paper. He had to keep his hands grasped under the table to control them. Would Loki like it? He had thought he would, but as Loki only stared at it in silence Sigyn’s smile fell. It was a knife belt, made of specially treated leathered and carefully decorated by both leatherwork and embroidery. Sigyn had worked with and for both the tanner and the blacksmith to make it. They had taught him how to craft it: making room for the knives, how to layer it for strength, how to sew it, and how to make it go about the waist. He had thought it perfect for Loki’s knives and daggers…

“Where did you get this?” Loki asked softly.

“I made it,” Sigyn answered. “I worked for the tanner and a bit for the blacksmith to pay for the materials. Then the tanner showed me how to make it… Do… do you want me to make or buy something else?”

“No!” Loki leapt to his feet. “It’s… it’s just that it’s so… wonderful. I never expected—“ He suddenly found himself against Sigyn as the young man threw his arms around him. The very air around Sigyn was excited and filled with happy warmth. He thumped Loki on the back before hugging him tighter. “Idiot! You scared me for a second there. Like you didn’t want it o r I had accidentally insulted you. You really like it, Loki?”

Loki answered. But the words were almost hesitant. Sigyn’s happy hug had been rather sudden. It wasn’t a bad thing. “I like it. Very much Sigyn.”

“Oh!” Sigyn heard the tone and stepped back. He rubbed at his hair sheepishly. “Sorry. People tell me I’m too huggy.”

Loki chuckled. He shook his head, letting him know it was ok. His hand traced over the knife belt fondly. “It is a fine gift. And one I deeply thank you for… you don’t know how much I needed this.” His words were careful. Sigyn would think he meant needing the knife belt. Loki would keep secret the fact he needed to know someone cared today.

~*~*~

When Loki retired to the privacy of his rooms for the night, he brought out Sigyn’s gifts. He would save the honey for breakfasts and teas. It was special, since Sigyn had wanted to share a new skill and present first to Loki. But it was the knife belt Loki wished to study. It had truly been a surprise. Both that Sigyn had taken the trouble and time to make it himself, and that he had been so observant. Loki couldn’t recall if he had ever used his knives in front of him. He must have seen the one he had tucked in his boot or up his sleeves.

He spread the knife belt out on his desk. Loki could see every now and then where a decorative stitch was slightly off. Every now and then a spot in the leatherwork where he had hesitated with the knife. But that was what made it special. It was also not why he had stilled when he first saw it. Loki ran his hand over the slots that would hold his knives. The tiny buzz of magic responded to his own. It was faint, fluctuating in and out. It couldn’t have come from Sigyn, since he showed no signs of magic, and yet it had. He summoned his own spells and carefully nudged the layers apart, enough to see between them without hurting the gift.

“Ah, I see now.” Between the layers, underneath where the daggers would go, were tiny slips of paper. On them were written words in runes. Sharpness. Sureness. Stability. Stealth. He touched one of the slips and Loki could suddenly see Sigyn. Needle in his mouth, hands working at tucking the runes in. Curls pulled back in a tail humming as he worked. It turned to singing once he began to sew. He wanted to keep Loki safe and did what he could. He wasn’t even sure the runes would work. It was his intentions, and the fact had he had sung while he worked, that had created the tiny sparks of magic. Loki smiled and released the leather to return to its original shape. He pulled out the thin box that contained his favorite weapons and began selecting.

~*~*~

The honey was delicious. He used it to sweeten his morning tea. Loki also spread it across the fresh hot rolls he liked with breakfast. He wondered if the taste was from particular flowers the bees had visited, or that it had been made for him. His mother thought so as well. She had joined him for breakfast as he sometimes did. Her chewing slowed and her eyes lit up.

“Where did you get this honey?” It was superb! The queen’s mind wandered to memories of childhood. Exploring fields of flowers in the summer sun. This could make a most excellent mead.

“It was a birthday present from my friend Sigyn. He made it.”

Frigga froze. Her face paled as she suddenly realized. Loki had not done it purposefully. There was no anger or resentment. He might not have even thought of mentioning it to her. In that moment, the queen realize she had forgotten her son’s birthday. In fact, his father, brother, and all of Asgard had forgotten it. Oh. Oh dear!

~*~*~

Sigyn eyed the guard as he escorted him to the palace. He had said that Prince Loki had sent him to retrieve Sigyn. He wouldn’t say why or what for. He didn’t say much at all in fact. For a split second, Sigyn had feared it was Odin summoning him. Oh crap. He was totally dead. Found out, Odin was going to pull his Odin shit, and he was deaaaaad. Then he had calmed. One would know when Odin was calling them. It could only be Loki. Besides, he was pretty sure Loki was one of a handful who even knew his name.

The guard brought him deep in the castle. He knocked on a set of doors that opened to what could only be Loki’s rooms. He tried not to gape (he totally was, like a tourist even!) as the guard ushered him inside. Loki was waiting. “Thank you for coming. I hope the blacksmith was agreeable with letting you go for the day.”

Sigyn made to reply but the guard cut him off. “I asked him to clean up before he came.” Yeah right. Sigyn had tried, but with all the glares and sighs he had given up. He consciously rolled down his sleeves from his shoulders and wiped his hands on his hips. The prince dismissed the guard before indicating Sigyn’s nose with a smirk. Damnit! No matter what he did he always ended up with a streak of soot across his nose. “You can tidy up in the washroom.”

“Nah. I want to leave sweat trolls and soot sprites all over your floor.” Sigyn teased as he padded into the room Loki indicated. It was hardly a washroom. It was more like a private pool for a bath! He poured warm water into a basin and used the pale soap that smelled lightly of lavender to clean up.

“Please no. I beg you. I have enough trouble with Thor.” Sigyn grinned. He could hear the long suffering in Loki’s voice. Speaking of Thor… Sigyn rubbed at the lighter patch across the bridge of his nose. He hoped it was taking a while to heal and not scarring. “So what trouble will we make today?”

“Actually, this is me inviting you to the ball tomorrow.” Loki answered. A large spitting of water answered him. Sigyn appeared around the corner, face dripping and hands raised. The hazel eyes were wide. “Um,” Sigyn swallowed and pointed over his shoulder. “I’ll clean that up. But, what!? Ball!?”

“Yes, you know, the party where everyone gets together to eye each other, rub elbows, dance, talk underneath, ally, enemize. You know, a ball.”

“I know… but me?” Hell, Sigyn basically hadn’t even gone to prom. Sure he had play acted dances and balls in performances. That was different. This was an actual palace, with actual royalty. It was like going to the President or Queen of England. Loki was different. He wouldn’t hurt or make fun of him. Others, however… Panic welled up in the normally calm young man.

“Loki answered with a quiet laugh. “Yes, I’d like you to come as my guest.” He poked Sigyn’s hands so they would drop. He wanted to thank him. “But I can’t lie and say I don’t have a selfish reason for asking you. I need you there. Then I’ll have someone to talk to whose intelligent and won’t come up to woo me.”

“Oh, is that all?” Sigyn pretended to wipe his forehead in relief before looking for a towel. “A block-shield then. ‘Hey you. Your silly frills are not for Loki. Away!’ “

“Something like that.” A knock came at the door. Loki answered and ushered in the three seamstresses he had summoned. He had already commissioned clothes for Sigyn for the ball and the colors that would complement him. Now they just needed a fitting. Loki understood the need for such occasions. For the realms to come together to secure friendships and work on diplomacy. They could be a droll sometimes, and there was always the task of princesses hanging off his arms. Besides, Thor always got to bring his friends. Why couldn’t he bring Sigyn?

The seamstresses poked and prodded him for the better part of an hour. Loki spent most if it speaking to him and trying to make him laugh. The eldest woman finally had to chastise the prince after pricking the young man for a countless time. The youngest giggled, wondering again if she couldn’t do Sigyn’s hair, pulling at his curls. The last shooed her away as she traced Sigyn’s feet to find him the best fit of boots. Really, where did Loki pick someone up that didn’t have fitting boots!

After they left Sigyn flopped across one of the couches. He rubbed at his belly where he had been poked. Loki appeared upside down in his vision. Green magic flashed and a shimmering butterfly landed on his nose before crawling down to his belly. He could feel a slight tingle every time one of the needle-pricks healed. He caught it with his hand, letting it wander over his fingers before blowing it back to Loki. “Would you like to spend the night? The ball won’t be until tomorrow afternoon, so I understand if you’d like to come back then.” The idea popped out of Loki’s mouth before he could stop it. That was unusual for him. Loki could understand where the offer came from, however. Guests would be arriving tonight and into tomorrow. The crowds and expectations already gave him a headache.

“Like a sleepover?” Sigyn sat upright. Something sparked in his eyes. Had Loki unleashed a beast? “Oooo. We could do each other’s hair and makeup and gossip and tell ghost stories all night!” He fell back to the touch laughing. “That’s what I always thought my sister did when she went on hers. That or plotting to take over the world… or my sweets.”

They did end up telling stories late in to the night. Loki called dinner to the room to eat in privacy. After all, he had attended so many evenings welcoming guests to the realm. It was Thor’s turn for once. Sigyn curled on the borrowed sleeping mattress a servant had brought in a lended nightshirt from Loki. They traded stories. Ones Loki had read or from his own adventures. Ones that Sigyn had gathered, all different kinds and sorts, held close to his heart. Loki could tell they were more precious than any gem or treasure to Sigyn. There was one curious practice in some of the tales Sigyn told him. At some points in the tale Sigyn would randomly burst out into a song that, while it had its point and either moved the story along or told the feelings of a character, seemed sudden. He would only smile sheepishly, “That’s just how he told it. All of his tales are like this in fact, even the ones fashioned after his death. Where I come from that’s how many of the children love their tales.”

It’s seemed rather peculiar; just like the name of the storyteller: Disney. But Loki decided it was rather interesting as he watched Sigyn drift off to sleep in the middle of a story. The songs were like many others in that it did tell a story as well as being memorable. He could tell his friend had sung the songs a lot. He even gave different, distinct voices if there was more than one character in the song. He even separated them on his hands, raising it expressively to let Loki know who was singing. Then again… the song was irritatingly catchy. Like the one about the judge and the deformed man. The lyrics ringing in his ear as he fell into sleep as well, asking who was really the monster and who was really the man. He’d have to ask Sigyn to finish it tomorrow…

As Loki fell asleep, he failed to notice the oddity of Sigyn’s back. There, along his spine. Breaking through his nightshirt. A strange glow…

~*~*~*~

It was while he was waiting for Loki to return that Sigyn dared peak over the railing at the balcony. They were rather high up. Excitement quickly overrode the queasy feeling in his stomach. It was like entering New York City from Upstate for the first time. Or when he had first moved to Portland, where the city was cleaner and friendlier. He could see the library from here, see tiny people moving about the market place. It even looked out over the water that stretched from the shore to the Observatory. From here the sky looked its ordinary blue. Perhaps only at or near the Observatory did the sky melt away to reveal the Universe and the billions of stars gathered there. He really wanted to go and knew Loki would take him. However, there was the fact that Heimdall was there. And would probably see who he really was…

As he turned to move back into the room Sigyn noticed something strange. Vines grew on either side of the door and upon them were an explosion of white flowers. It was strange in that facts of how they could have grown so high up on the palace, and bloom after the snow that had fallen during the night. Sigyn gently stroked the flowers, studying their five-petal arrangement. Their perfume was heady due to the fact there were so many. They looked as if snow was sticking to the sides of the palace. But more than anything, Sigyn had the distinct feeling he knew what the flowers were and why they were here. However, try as he might, Sigyn couldn’t think of it. So, with a shrug, Sigyn followed his instincts and harvested the flowers until he had a great armful.

Loki raised an eyebrow as Sigyn stepped back into the room from the balcony. His green eyes looked between the armful of flowers and the cluster tucked into Sigyn’s curls. “What?” Sigyn asked with his own raised brow. Loki only smiled. He didn’t protest as Sigyn tucked a few into one of the button slits on Loki’s chest. “Oo, you know what would be a fun game to help pass the ball? I dare you to get some of these flowers anywhere on Thor…. And inside Odin’s beard~ And then somewhere on as many people as you can.”

“That would be a fun challenge,” Loki laughed. He tucked flowers into his pockets as well as other hidden places. Sigyn still held on to his armful. He seemed to have some purpose for them. Loki left it alone as he turned to lead his friend to the ball. “I have someone I’d like you to meet before the festivities.”

“Who?” Sigyn asked. But try as he might he could not weasel the answer from the prince. It was only when he saw the group down the hall that he realized what Loki intended. A group of servants and handmaidens. All surrounding a beautiful older woman, dressed in a stunning gown and holding herself with elegance. He felt his face pale and tried to hide behind Loki. “The Queen!? But –but I can’t meet her!”

“Why ever not?” Sigyn’s sudden shyness amused Loki. The young man was always so calm and sure about everything else. When he kept trying to hide from sight Loki simply pushed Sigyn in front of him.

“She’s your mother. And I’ve never met a queen before. And—“ By then Frigga had waved her women away and come to meet them. She smiled softly as Loki introduced him. Ah. So this was Sigyn. The friend that seemed to appear so suddenly in her son’s life. It was good that Loki was finding his own friends. If Loki hadn’t told her otherwise she would have thought him as one of the visiting princes. The handsome clothes that Loki had commissioned, purple with Loki’s own colors of green and black, brought out the shade of Sigyn’s eyes and hair. Yet it was the light in those eyes and the graciousness as he bowed that drew her. Even though he was obviously nervous and blushing at the sight of her. He held out the armful of beautiful white flowers he carried to her. “These are for you, Milady.”

There were so many things Sigyn wanted to talk to Frigga about. So many things to warn her about, for Loki’s sake. Yet he couldn’t. Not here and now at least. “It is an honor to meet you.” He glanced at Loki. “Your son is a dear friend. I can tell that he was raised in the arms of a gentle queen, and a strong mother.”

Frigga was surprised. By both the words and the gift. Sigyn seemed to have nothing more to say and half stepped behind Loki, shy once more. Men hardly recognized the influence that a mother had on her children. Even by the way he talked and looked directly at her made her suspect that he was not of Asgard, as Loki had said. Or even raised in a household where things were different. Even the gift. No one had ever brought her flowers before. Not even Odin when he was courting her. She loved them; especially in this time of winter! She watched the two boys eventually move down the hall to the rooms where the ball was to begin. Loki laughed at Sigyn’s shyness. And Sigyn playfully shoved Loki for surprising him. A feeling of peace settled over the queen as she listened to them banter.

The ball was how Loki said it would be. Mostly. Loki had been to many of them. Sigyn had been to none. So while he was prepared, everything was foreign and new. There were so many people here, and most of them were from the royalty and noble houses of Asgard and other realms. The human stood tucked at the side of the dais stairs as Loki was pulled away from the toast. Odin gave a short speech on how the celebration was both for the relationship between the realms as well as for Loki’s birthday. Sigyn rolled his eyes when no one was looking, since he couldn’t facepalm. Odin really had forgotten his son’s birthday. It was obvious by the quick nature of his words, as well as the hastily bought gifts that people piled on one of the tables for Loki. Odin stayed on the dais, sitting next to Frigga who still held the gifted flowers in her arms. Sigyn also caught glimpses of Thor throughout the celebration. But he was always with his own friends and hardly even around his brother. The guests did pay attention to Loki at least. He got to witness it as Loki dragged him along, desperate for his own companion.

It wasn’t as bad as Loki feared. Sure. There were definitely people that were only here, only talking to him, to get in Asgard’s good graces. They didn’t care about what Loki was really liked or what he cared for. Yet here and there Sigyn was able to weed out someone who was genuinely interested. Or at the very least interesting. At times they even forgot they were at a ball, tucked away in a little group for conversations. Speaking of magic, or traveling between realms, or even how things were done differently in the realms. Sometimes even Sigyn forgot that he was trying to find Loki people to talk to. Damn his hunger for knowledge. Luckily, Loki didn’t seem to mind. And the conversations were often shared between all of them. But then the dancing started. And Loki was whisked away by maidens desperate to grab his attention.

Without the prince nearby most people ignored him. Sigyn didn’t mind. He stood out of the way by one of the pillars to watch, snatching bits of food as servants walked by. He wasn’t sure he could dance whatever these dances were anyway. He hadn’t seen anything… quite… like them. Thor bellowed with laughter, whisking girls off their feet. Mead must be pouring somewhere. Volstagg was stuffing his face, and Fandral was trying to get Sif to dance. It wasn’t happening. Up on the dais, while Sigyn couldn’t here, Odin offered once again to summon a servant to place the flowers in a vase. And once again Frigga refused. Was he really here, at a ball in Asgard, watching Loki’s dark head appear in and out in the sea of people? How his sister Darcy would have laughed at him—

Sigyn stood up straighter. Nearby, along the wall, was a woman that Sigyn realized he had been seeing all night. Alone. Never speaking to anyone. Now she sat watching the dance and no one even approached her to offer an arm to join in. Her elegant dress was black, with hints of dark green, and in a style different from everyone else. Her velvet mask that covered her upper face was in a similar style and color to the gown. He realized, slowly approaching her through the crowd, that the slight eerie feeling about her was due to the fact that her eyes could not be seen beyond the mask. Sigyn bowed his head to her and held out a hand, smiling. “I might not be very since I am unfamiliar with the dances here. But if you’d like, I would be honored to ask you for a dance.”

The woman looked at him. Or studied for that matter. It was only from the slight movements of her head that he could tell she looked from his face, to his offered hand, to the flowers tucked in his hair. Then, she smiled, and it was a tight, coy thing. For a split moment when her hand joined his her touch was icy. Then it simply faded away. Sigyn led her to the middle of the floor where the press of people was less. “You can’t do worse than the men here,” the woman finally spoke. Her voice was even, and yet sounded far off. Almost like a whisper. “But since you were the only one to offer, I suppose I’ll let you choose whatever dance you like.”

Sigyn nodded. He held her hand somewhat extended in his left hand and placed his right hand at her back around the waist. She seemed to know to place her other hand on that arm. Music began echoing in his head, instruments of a song he couldn’t name at the moment. His feet followed it and he led her through the steps of a waltz. At least he knew that from one of the plays he had practiced for. “What is that tune you are singing?” Sigyn started. He hadn’t realized he had been whistling for the piccolo playing in his head out loud. Then even the violin started in the song, he had been humming. The music built in his head. More instruments poured in, starting something akin to a waltz. A dance… No. A danse.

“Oh!” Sigyn suddenly realized the tune. Danse Macabre. Why on earth was the thinking that song in his head? The woman slowly began to smile, both happy and amused. “Sorry. I was just hearing different music and singing it aloud. Guess it’s rather weird to be having that in my head, and not let you know what it is.”

“Oh, I wasn’t smiling at your misfortune. I am just particularly amused that the same person to wear my Flowers is the same who sings my Song in his head.” Suddenly, the music was all around them. From the brief glimpses he caught of others around them Sigyn knew they could hear it too. Their dance became faster as the music built. That’s when Sigyn realized what the flowers were. That’s when he realized just who it was he danced with. The white flowers were those once spoken of in that book, the one of a boy raised in a graveyard. The flowers meant that the Macabre and its Danse had arrived. And its Lady had arrived. Hela, Queen of the Dead. Sigyn only smiled and laughed, as he always did in the song.

Soon as he could think about was the wild chords of the song. Hela whirled him around in dizzying movements, laughing with him. She seemed to be enjoying herself. Sigyn wondered if the white forms he could see would of the corner of his eyes were the ghosts and skeletons of the song. At another point, leading a possession of other dancers, he saw that a spectral orchestra was the one responsible for the song set up along one wall. He recognized many of the musicians. At least, they resembled the paintings and photos left of them. Bach. Liszt. Mussorgsky. “Hey, we should dance Night on Bald Mountain later! And- and is that Saint-Saëns conducting?”

“Of course! Why wouldn’t I have him performing the song he wrote for me?”

Then Hela leaned closer, and whispered something in his ear. When Sigyn opened his eyes it was dark outside and he leaning against Loki on a bench. In the hall around them, people slept. Even Odin and Frigga on their thrones. Sigyn rubbed at his eyes and as he did so something was knocked loose from his hair. White flowers… He had the distinct feeling he knew what they were, and what they were for. He had the memory of an icy hand in his own, and a woman’s laughter they danced. But the more he tried to think about it, the farther the thought flitted away. He leaned back against Loki, tucking his head over his, and hoped the prince had managed some joy out of his birthday before Sigyn fell back into sleep.

~*~*~

_“You know, you should thank that young man.”_

_Odin did not jump. He was not… startled. He was the High King after all! But the voice was wrong, out of place here. Especially so late at night, at the timing of midnight, in this hall emptied of the ball and its guests. He cast his eye up the stairs to where his throne sat. A woman lounged across it. Cast in shadows and darkness, playing with a single white flower. Much like the little white petals scattered about the hall, and the ones he had picked out of his beard. “Hela,” he tried not to hiss._

_“Oh, you would have never suspected what I came to do. You wouldn’t have been able to stop me either, Allfather. For as wise and powerful you claim to be, you should know better than to insult a queen.” Odin’s throat tightened with ice. She didn’t have to explain more of what she spoke of. When he had sent out the invitations to the realms, she had been specifically not invited. Who would want Death at a ball? Hela rose, and was suddenly on the steps above him. She smelled of bone dust and wilted flowers. “I would have taken your precious queen from you. It would be the only thing worthy of the insult done; a queen for a queen.”_

_“If you touch Frigga--!!”_

_Hela snorted. “I won’t, because I haven’t already. If you had been paying any attention to my words at all, daft fool. I couldn’t very well harm her when he placed my flowers in her arms, and then be the only one to treat me graciously. But be warned, Odin. You never know when someone cannot be swayed.” With a whisper, she was gone. Leaving Odin with her cryptic words and wondering who in the word she was talking about._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The nods at in the chapter are at/inspired by:   
> Disney's "Hunchback of Notre Dame"  
> "Danse Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saëns  
> and "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman, particularly the Danse Macabre there that's signaled by white flowers
> 
> And yes, in case it wasn't clear, Hela came to kill Frigga for the slight/insult, but Sigyn unknowingly saved her


	8. Vanaheim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki and Sigyn's Marvelous Misadventures through the Nine Realms begins in Vanaheim

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize that this has been left alone for so long. A lot of real life stuff happened. I finished by year break after getting my undergrad degree/working and starting my master's degree. And moving. And watching over my younger brother living with me going to his first college. 
> 
> But things have calmed a bit so the writing should pick back up.
> 
> I also apologize if this chapter seems a bit rusty, or padded. I like what's here, and its setting up a few things.

“It was so much fun!” Sigyn glowed as he worked on Sleipnir’s coat. “I’ve never been to a real ball before. There were so many people; from different realms too! I even fell asleep even though I didn’t drink anything.”

Sleipnir shook his head. As if to say he could very well believe it. He might be down in the stables but he could figure what went on with how loud the parties became.  
“It’s true. Loki had a good time too… I think. He didn’t kill anyone or asked me to hide bodies.” Sigyn tried to hide his grin. There was a reason he mentioned the prince now. Loki was trying to sneak up on him. As usual with Sigyn he started cracking up burying his face in the stallion’s coat.

“Oh, that’s what you think~” The prince answered. “I simply mind controlled you, had you do the work, and then wiped your memories.”

Sigyn blinked. Then he lifted his arms, began to shuffle, and made noises like a zombie. Loki had no idea what it was yet got the idea. He laughed and swatted one of his arms as Sigyn reached for him. “If that’s what it was like I don’t think you could sneak up on anyone.”

“They were incredibly drunk. I pushed them down stairs and wells. And I ate some brains, not that any were particularly tasty.” Sleipnir butted his great nose against Sigyn’s hip. The human took the hint and finished grooming his neck. Loki moved to pet the horse as he offered him a treat.

“I’m still rather surprised Sleipnir likes you.” Loki hummed. When Sigyn looked over in surprise he nodded. “He’s King of Horses and he knows it. He’s tried to trample most of the people that would see to his care. I think he tolerate me since I’m Father’s son. And I frequently bribe him with honey carrots.” The stallion whickered in agreement. Loki offered him another handful.

“Really?”

“Yes. The first time when you came in and wondered over to him, I was waiting for it.”

“… the first? Wait, you were here?”

“Yes, up in the rafters. Have places I like to read.” 

“You- you stalker!” Sigyn gasped in mock horror. He dramatically placed a hand to his forehead. He waivered on his feet as if to faint. “Woe is me. Every moment watched!”

“Oh stop that.” He had truly thought that Sigyn would be trampled that day. Yet as he had looked on, Sleipnir had taken to the boy. Perhaps it was how he carried on a conversation with the stallion. Most thought him another dumb animal. Or maybe it was how gentle he was in his mannerisms. There was a happy air around him. One that was infectious at times. He had once been as carefree as his friend…

Loki reached into one of his pockets and retrieved the letter. “I had better keep an eye on you. Someone at the ball as invited me for a visit, and specifically requested I bring you.”

“Me?” The two of them had visited with many people that night. Someone had remembered his name? Enough to invite him to come with Loki?

“Yes. Frey of Vanaheim and he writes his sister Freyja ‘demanded’ you come as well. Then, I guess, their father Njord learned of it and extended a welcome as well. Father’s turned it into an official diplomatic-like visit…”

“Oh, I see… I think.” Sigyn had to think carefully of what to say next. There was a tightening in Loki’s voice as he trailed off. “Is it like a chance to foster relations? Or gain a real-life experience?”

 

“Like practice for when I am king…” That was what Sigyn was trying to avoid mentioning. “But he’s always sent Thor and I together on these.”

“That’s great then!” Sigyn hoped he chose the right words. Loki needed assurance in this moment. Odin’s actions and choices most of the time were… Well, they just seemed wrong. But Loki still relied on his father. He wanted prove himself while making his father proud. Didn’t every child want that at some point? Sigyn couldn’t say anything against it now, not when Loki didn’t know the human all that well. “He must think you ready. Why don’t you try it? I promise to help if things get too intense or boring.”

“But I’ve been give no instructions.”

Sigyn thought. “Then make the trip your own. IS there anything of concern you believe your father overlooked? Is there anything you would wish to accomplish with the Vanir? Or even anything you wanted to learn or a place you wished to visit?”

Loki remained quiet for several agonizing moments. Sleipnir even shoved Sigyn closer to the prince as if to make him speak. He finally looked up, a small smile on his lips. “Allright then. Only if you are with me.”

~*~*~  
They traveled to Vanaheim on horseback. Frigga saw them off. Little pieces of advice to Loki. Another thankful smile to Sigyn for the flowers. Along with the gentle look in her eyes that she was glad he went with her son. They would first go to King Njord at the Palace-by-the-Sea. Then they would visit Frey and Freyja, his eldest twin children, who ruled the rivers. A group of guards escorted them down a paved roadway away from Asgard until they reached a wide arching gate. There they were met by a second group, this time of Vanir, who would escort them the rest of the way to the Vanir palace.

There was a feel to the air under the gate. It buzzed and pressed against Sigyn’s skin. And it might have just been his ears or was that the creaking of tree branches in the air? It was truly a gateway between realms. The Vanir soldiers sent to escort them were just as interesting as the pathway. They seemed to resemble Asgardians (and humans) except with an overall slimmer stature, almost like swimmers had. Some were pale with darker shades of hair and eyes. Yet others were darker skinned with sunbleached shades of hair like they spent a lot of time outdoors.

Sigyn tried to keep the conversation going with the group. Loki, however, had become rather quiet. When he spoke with the Vanir his words were short and curt. Like he did not want to speak with them… Or thought him above them. That was it; Sigyn could see it in Loki’s face when he smiled at him. It made his stomach clench a bit. Should he say something? No. It wasn’t a time for wondering. He _would_ say something.

The Vanir Palace-by-the-Sea stretched upwards along the shore. He could see it miles away, just as he could smell the sea air. How he missed that… He had grown up along rivers and his family had always vacationed to the ocean. Even great grandmamma who had immigrated over the sea had smelled of salty sea air to him. Sigyn stood up in the stirrups in his eagerness to see. The palace was all white and pale colors resembling coral and water smoothed stone. It reminded him of seashells or underwater rock structures. And the sea beyond? Blue, blue, and still bluer. 

“Oh!” Wait, what was that? Sigyn squinted. “Is that a city out there?” He pointed it out to one of the Vanir guards. The woman nodded as she finally smiled. “They’re all on islands? Or are they floating? How do they do that? Can you swim up underneath them?

“Some are anchored to the islands, yes. Others are floating however. It’s a rather simple technique of engineering. The rest is under the waves.” She explained. As she did she pointed out each structure in turn. He legs itched in her boots. Just speaking of it made her anxious for the sea. “We can show it to you if you wish.”  
“That would be wonderful!” Sigyn beamed. “I mean, if you aren’t busy with something and I would be interrupting.”

“Not at all,” another answered. He eyed Prince Loki who was silently watching the entire exchange. The prince had been separating himself for the entire trip. Yet now he had a look on his face resembling curiosity… perhaps a wish to join in. The soldier watched as the prince’s face lifted with the curly haired man turned to him. “Will we have time later, Loki? We could explore everything.” 

“Well…” Loki almost refused. But the eager look on Sigyn’s face was too tempting. He could only smile and nod. “Why not? We’ll go after meeting with the King.”  
Just the huge smile on Sigyn’s face. Well now, the soldier thought privately. There was hope for him yet.

~*~*~  
The two were greeted by a flurry of servants. Some took their things up to their rooms while others brought them refreshments. It was cooler within the palace, built in a way to take in natural light while tempering the glare off the water. The rooms were filled with air coming off the sea in cooling breezes. In fact, many rooms had the sea at hand in clear pools like tidal pools. The greeting almost Sigyn more nervous than the ball. He’d never been on a royal visit before. The sight of just Njord coming to greet them made him relax, however. The expression on his face was like visiting a dear relative on holiday. Loki’s impression of the scene was far different than his friend’s. If Vanaheim had visited them there would have been fanfare. Feasts. Here it looked like no one outside the palace knew they had arrived!  
“Welcome to Vanaheim, Prince Loki.” King Njord greeted before he gave an elaborate bow at the waist. The Vanir King looked as old as Odin with some color left in his hair and a clean shaven face. His hair was grown past his shoulders and seemed to be… moving. As if flowering in water. His clothes of blues and greens in varying shades did the same. It was rather hard for the human not to reach out to touch. Sigyn did permit himself to take a peek at his feet. They were barefoot and rather handsome like the story said. He had to keep back a chuckle as he thought of it. “I hope you will pardon the absence of my queen and children. Skadi took them hunting in the mountains with quarry proving rather skilled in escaping.”

“Your wife… took them hunting…” Loki tried not to sound incredulous. In Asgard it was the other way around. He couldn’t imagine his mother doing the same.   
Njord smiled as he appeared to overlook the insult. “Yes. She rather prefers her feet in skis than sand, while I am more comfortable here. And are you, perchance, the one my eldest daughter wrote about?”

And now Njord so easily overlooked Loki! He hadn’t even introduced his friend yet. Sigyn only smiled in his way with hands clasped behind his back and bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Yes,” Loki began, “allow me to introduce my companion, Sigyn.” 

“Thank you for your hospitality, King Njord.” Sigyn bowed. Loki could have groaned. What was his friend doing? Njord had done nothing worthy to acknowledge the presence of an Asgardian prince. At the very least, Sigyn’s was a compliment best left for when they left the realm and not before.

“Now I know my youngest will be loathed to have missed you. She shares your name.”

“Truly?” Sigyn continued on autopilot. “Where I am from it is a very uncommon name. It would have been wonderful to have met her.” Another Sigyn. In the universe that was actually Loki’s own. And a female no less. Was she… could she be meant to? Sigyn risked a glance at Loki when Njord’s attention turned. By tradition Sigyn was one of Loki’s wives. By being here, was he changing events that stories said were to be?

…Okay, that was dumb. Especially after the consideration he was here to change things. It wasn’t like he would marry Loki. He only wished to be a friend and to help him step onto a new path.

“Is there anything that would entertain my friend while we are taken to discussion, King Njord?” Loki asked. Inter-realm talks could be both stressful and tedious. Most often he hated them himself so he wouldn’t want to subject Sigyn to them. Sigyn turned with an expression asking if it was truly okay.

“Vanaheim holds countless wonders. I assure that you are free to explore and partake of any you wish. Merely address my people if there is anything you require.” Njord didn’t have to suggest anything. He could see it in Sigyn’s eyes. For most of the conversation, when he wasn’t politely looking at the speaker, Sigyn was gazing through an open room nearby with a view of the shore. “I promise not to keep your prince long, Sigyn.” 

“Thank you once again, your highness!” Damnit. The excitement was getting the better of him. The ocean was very tempting. Loki gave Sigyn a soft smile when he thought no one else was looking. In turn Sigyn turned with an expression that he would rather wait to Loki than go alone. He waved him off as Njord motioned to a private room. Loki didn’t expect speaking with Njord to take very long. What would he have to speak with a Vanir about anyway? A brief look of concern came on Sigyn’s face before a servant took him down another hall.

Worry. Sigyn had looked worried. Why?

After directions and a promise that they would bring a shading lounge, Sigyn was unleashed on the beach. Which meant that Sigyn stripped down to a still polite amount of clothing, kicked off his boots, and made a beeline for the water. The beach was clean with pale sand and dotted with seashells. The water was pleasantly warm, unlike the cool waters off of the places he was used to visiting. Boulders and breakers formed pools that were perfect for swimming with clear water all the way to the bottom. He had apparently forgotten just how much he liked swimming. Too bad he didn’t have anything like goggles so he could free dive. The salty water would sting too much.

Brightly colored fish darted under the waves and starfish lounged on the rocks. The weathered rocks were smoothed by the ocean so they didn’t hurt his feet as he began scrambling over them to look at the other pools that the rocks created. One was shallower than the others, as if extra sand had been laid down. He could see the dark greens of kelp plants swaying and even the prickly spines of urchins. Huh, odd, especially when he saw that easily climbable rocks were purposely placed throughout the pool.

On the beach leading directly to the pool was a structure made out of driftwood. He and Darcy had built some themselves as kids, little places to duck into while playing castle or shipwrecked. The entrance was placed to lean to the water with the sand before that littered with little paw prints. Sigyn leaned his dripping head into the shadowed entrance to have a better look inside only to jump back as a furry thing darted at his feet. With a laugh at himself Sigyn looked again as more darted in and out with excited chatters. Sea otter pups! They looked similar to the ones on Earth except with more colors of fur. They looked to be of varying ages and with no sign of a mother. “Are you orphans then?” He knew it could happen where mothers were attacked or were forced to focus on one pup at birth over another.

They chattered up at him as if used to land dwellers approaching them. In the next moment they realized he was a stranger. They sniffed at his toes and tested them with tiny paws. They must have come to some sort of acceptance of him as they chattered once more before bouncing off in a manner of wanting him to follow. “Wait! I wanna play too!”

Back in the palace Njord studied the young man opposite him. Perhaps it was due to growing up around Odin when they were both young men. Or perhaps it was due to his own status as a father with children near Loki’s age. It was true that Loki hadn’t flat out insulted him, but Njord also knew that some of the other realms would have taken offense at his attitude. While he was much more polite and well mannered than Thor he could still see the same veins of conceit and superiority in Loki that Odin had. Yet he could also see the struggle in him. In how he thought he should act, how he actually acted, and in what he wanted to do. He behaved like the Vanir were beneath him due to a mix of personal belief and how he was raised. Those emerald eyes were curious, however. Njord had the feeling if Loki were free, both from under Odin’s shadow and to learn for himself, it was change for the better.

Njord knew from his own children that a great part of their character depended on those they surrounded themselves with. Frey and Freyja, his eldest, said that Loki seemed to tag along with friends that were actually Thor’s. This Sigyn that traveled with Loki had been unexpected. While clearly not Asgardian nobility he had approached the Vanir with respect and awe born from curiosity. It hadn’t escaped him in their brief interactions that Loki was more relaxed around Sigyn. And even truer to what he could be. Perhaps with more friends like that boy and finding his own inner strength Loki could find his own way.

“Loki, do you know why I extended my invitation to come here after hearing of my eldest’s request for you?” Njord calmly asked.

Loki’s eyes became shadowed. Steeled. Was the real reason coming to light now? Some plot? Some play to gain favor with the Allfather? “It was to welcome you to Vanaheim. No formal parties to sit through. No talks to dance around. Just a place o visit and explore at leisure before you travel on.”

“Did--- Did you just insult-!” Loki seemed to coil like a cat. His tongue worked to ready the words that raced through his mind. Then it dissipated. What Njord said… it was all true.

“I am rather blunt.” Njord admitted. Loki nodded in agreement. The prince had to admit it was rather refreshing. Not that he was completely relaxed. That would be foolish. He would still keep an eye on Njord in case he meant to trick him. Njord nodded to one of the wide windows that faced the ocean. Sigyn could be seen swimming in the water. “I extend the same offer to you as I did your friend. There will be food tonight as well as shelter before the boat takes you to my eldest in the interior tomorrow.”

“…thank you for your hospitality.” Njord accomplished the Asgardian prince to the beach where his friend swam. The boy was floating on his back with most of the sea otter orphans on his stomach. He balanced a flat rock on his chest while mimicking cracking a mussel with another. They could hear his soft chatter from shore. The Vanir King had to smile. He personally took care of the cubs in his old age that otherwise wouldn’t survive. Sigyn must love animals as much as he. With a wave of his hand he had the ocean push Sigyn to shore. The pups bounded off the boy’s chest to the king’s feet to tumble at his robes. Sigyn padded out of the water still holding the youngest who gnawed at the meat of the shell.

Njord could see the red starting to appear on Sigyn’s cheeks and the back of his neck. He reached into his sleeve to pull out the little box of sun salve he always kept on hand. “Allow me,” Njord suggested as he quickly took salve and spread it on the affected areas. “That’ll keep your skin from sunburn. Some of my youngest ones are also affected by how much sun we get here.” The act was shocking to the visiting prince. Why was a king bothering to personally help someone? Like the advice he had given Loki or preventing Sigyn’s discomfort. Sigyn smiled his thanks as he handed the otter pup over. “Thanks. I do burn rather easily.”

“Did things go well?” Sigyn wondered after the king left. Njord said they could do as they wished until dinner. Loki looked thoughtful as they walked along the beach. His eyes watched Sigyn’s once again bare feet walk alongside his own.

“Perhaps… I received some wise advice I’d never thought to receive from a Vanir.”

There was a slight pause in Sigyn’s step. “Knowledge and wisdom aren’t restricted to just one people. It can come from anyone or anywhere. Granted, some can understand particulars of it better due to situations, experiences, or time. But then all that wisdom can be shared between everyone and be used to find and understand things no one could have alone.”

A soft, scoffing sound escaped Loki’s throat. “You truly believe that?”

“Yes, or at least, I try to keep myself open to it. Things can come from the most surprising or mysterious places.” Sigyn answered. He hoped he had answered in a way that would make Loki think. He had known about it and seen hints of it before spending time with Loki in Asgard. He considered Asgardians, and by extension himself, superior to everyone else. Thor might be more obvious about it but Loki’s was quieter and almost crueler. The thought made Sigyn’s chest hurt and he unconsciously rubbed at it.

“… I don’t know why it bothers me… After all, our library back home contains materials from all the realms.” Lost in thoughts, he missed the excited smile that crossed Sigyn’s face as he looked on the prince.

They decided to take a boat out to the city that floated on the waves. While some of the Vanir directed the boat, others took on a half transformed state and took to the water. Sigyn leaned over the side of the boat to watch. This might be where the stories of merfolk came from. Loki seemed surprised as well even though he knew of the ability. “Can everybody transform? Or only a few?”

“Many can, my prince.” One of the sailors answered. “It is usually those born near the sea, though we can move between both forms with practice.”

“Is it always a specific tail form and color?” The prince’s companion asked. Many on the ship, though unfamiliar with him, liked the young man. They knew when a fellow was drawn to the sea like themselves. He walked around the boat with both ease and interest. That was when he didn’t look like he was going to jump overboard to join the swimmers. “Or does it change with what you’d like to do?”

“Usually there is one tail. It is like… having a well tailored glove. It feels right. If needed, however, you can change it.” Another answered. “Like when there is danger and a need for swiftness.”

Perhaps what was the most surprising about the floating city were the gardens. There was a wide array of tropical plants and bright blooming flowers. A busy market went about its business. Musicians practiced somewhere deeper within. Bridges connected many of the separate island-like structures along with any places to dock. Like a larger, tropical Venice perhaps. The water underneath was still clear allowing one to see down for hundreds of feet. There must be underwater entrances to the buildings since every now and then he could see some disappearing. Sigyn turned to ask but found Loki deep in a conversation with a Vanir about magical theories surrounding their transformations. The emerald eyes looked alive while also at ease. He wouldn’t interrupt them.

Something out in the water seemed to be drawing the people’s attention. Sigyn joined the crowd as they looked out to the water. He soon spotted a spout of water followed by a massive tail. Excitement grew as many took to the water to swim towards it. “Whales?” Sigyn asked one of the nearby Vanir who resembled a guard. “Yes. One of the first mothers arriving with her calf. They arrive around this time to take advantage of the schools of fish.”

“She has a baby!?” Sigyn squinted out to sea to see if he could spot it. 

Loki, drawn by the excitement in Sigyn’s voice, came to stand beside them. He had only heard of whales from books and Vanir visiting Asgard. “Are they truly as large a fish as they say?”

“Yes. Why don’t I escort you out there to see for yourself?”

“Do you have… um, eye covers?” Sigyn mimicked goggles over his eyes. “And breathing tubes? I don’t think I can hold my breath that long…”

The man grinned. “I can do one better. We developed spells to assist those born without the ability.” Eyes flickered between them. “If I may?”

Sigyn nodded eagerly. Loki watched as the hazel eyes closed while his friend tried to remain still. He still couldn’t get used to how nonchalant Sigyn was with magic. Thor sometimes refused to even have spells cast on him, even though they would have helped. People refused to have their bodies ‘manipulated in such an unnatural way.’ Here, however, magic seemed every day. True, the ability to partially transform and influence water related elements was far different than the level mages controlled. But to have spells created so people without that magic could enjoy the benefits everyone else had.

Sigyn blinked as the spell settled. His eyes felt the same but he could feel a difference in his breathing. He rubbed his hands along the sides of his neck half expecting gills but didn’t find them. Loki permitted the same and looked ready to enter the water until Sigyn laughed as he tugged on a leather portion of his outfit. “It would reaaaally shrink~” Sigyn teased as he came back with a borrowed shirt. “Though I think the ladies wouldn’t mind.” Sigyn yelped as the prince shoved him in and jumped after.

The Vanir guard transformed to a powerful tail that resembled a dolphin. The two held on as he cut through the water with little resistance. It felt like a dream, Sigyn thought, to see and breathe so clearly without bulky scuba gear. The guard slowed when they came within a dozen yards of the whale. The A few Vanir swam around her while others examined the calf as if checking their health. All Sigyn could do was float in awe. He wondered if the whales on earth were similar since he’d only seen them through pictures and from boats.

“They are massive!” Loki whispered as if the creature would hear and swim at them. He had seen creatures of such a size yet never underwater. He could hear a noise through the water, like a low rumble along the motions of a song. Sigyn’s eyes were wide with awe.

“Would you like to greet her?”

“I can? But… isn’t that forbidden?” Sigyn asked, voice filled with worry.

“No! Why would you think that?” The Vanir guard laughed. “You can see the others with the other.”

“Where I’m from, some hunted them beyond what could be sustained. So they made laws that you can only look from a distance…”

“What?” Why would whales be hunted anywhere? Here they were left alone until they died naturally or by predator. Then they would harvest what was useable and left the rest to cycle back into the ocean life. “Here, at least, you can.”

“I’ll go with you, Sigyn,” Loki offered. Sigyn still carried an expression of both awe and fear. Like someone would strike him for approaching. They swam side by side until they reached her head then paused near her eye. It was wide, larger than any dinner plate, and intelligent. She knew they were there. She knew her calf was within a safe distance to her. “Do you think her skin is rough?”

“I dunno…” Sigyn answered with eyes still gazing into her eye. He reached out, respectful, and cautious. His fingers spread out over the skin in a light touch. “Hello…”

The rumbling song Loki heard changed. He could almost feel her… acknowledging them. She allowed them to linger, free floating along with the current, until she knew it was time for her calf to breathe. She turned slowly, graceful in her bulk as she pushed the calf to the surface. None were hit by her flippers.

“That was--!!” Sigyn suddenly kicked excitedly. The motion made him curl and tumble through the water. He grinned at Loki through curls that floated every direction. “I never thought that would happen!” He twisted until he was in upright then swam towards a large turtle nearby. 

“Just how many creatures are in the sea?” Loki wondered to their guard. He hadn’t really considered it before. Save that some fish lived in mother’s garden pools and other edible ones were in rivers and the seas.

“Countless. Sometimes just as much or more than on land—“ The guard answered before suddenly stopping. His eyes were on the pod of dolphins that swam to surround the prince’s companion. Sigyn wasn’t alarmed by their presence as he continued to swim while interacting with them. Their behavior was one of protecting a calf against a predator. A quick glance helped him spot a loose group of sharks swimming deeper in the water.

“What is it?” Loki had immediately picked up on the change in the guard’s voice then followed his gaze. “Is Sigyn in danger from those things down there?”  
“No… The sharks around here rarely attack us. They know we would handle them and can command them to leave.”

“Attack!?”

“They won’t attack.” The man motioned to the pod that swam and played with Sigyn. “Dolphins tare as sensitive as they are protective. They’ve sensed that he is vulnerable and will thus shield him until he’s out of the water.”

“A pity though,” said a nearby female with an elegant tail. “I believed with how talented he is in the water he was one of us. But sharks wouldn’t attack a Vanir.”  
Loki could only shrug. As long as Sigyn was safe he didn’t care. Yet the thought came to him as he climbed the dock back into the city. Continued to rattle his thoughts as they sat with Njord for dinner accompanied by a performance. She’d remarked that Sigyn wasn’t a Vanir; Loki had already known that. But the remark brought the realization that he knew little of Sigyn’s origin other than he was outside of Asgard’s royal city.

Yet sitting with him at the meal, watching his animated face as Njord explain the different lands and people of Vanaheim, Loki decided he didn’t care.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Njord is called King of the Sea and said to come from Vanaheim in Norse tales. Until Thor: The Dark World, I imagined and still imagined Vanaheim as a more sea based realm. If it isn't mentioned in the next chapter, here is how Vanaheim is split up: Njord is King of the Sea (the vast majority of Vanaheim is sea with small islands and one large landmass) Frey and Freyja are Njord's eldest children an Aesir woman who is now deceased and are rulers of the rivers, and Skadi is Queen of the Mountains.
> 
> -Skadi is a frost giantess. In the original tale Thor kills her father and she demands compensation for his lost, in the form of an Aesir husband, specifically Balder. Odin says he has to pick him out by his feet while they hide behind curtains. She picks out the cleanest, prettiest feet and they turn out to be Njord's. While they marry, Skadi is said to be unable to stand the sound of seagulls and Njord unable to stand the sound of wolves.  
> \-- Here, the two have a fair number of children together, of interest the Princess Sigyn. Some version don't say where she's from, but I think one or two (and the fandom) like to place her as from Vanaheim. Another fandom writer first wrote her as the Vanir/Jotun daughter of Skadi and Njord and I've liked the idea enough to use it here.
> 
> -Some might find Njord ease with Loki and Sigyn odd for a king. Njord is more relaxed and extremely fatherly.


End file.
